THE FIRST PROOF: Children, who comprise one fourth of the human race, can endure the death and decease that appear to them so awesome and tragic only by means of the idea of Paradise. Only by this means can they find some spiritual strength in their weak and delicate bodies, and find some hope permitting them to live joyfully, despite their vulnerable spiritual disposition that swiftly gives way to tears. Thinking of Paradise, the child will, for example, say: "My little brother or friend has died, and become a bird in Paradise. He is playing there, and leading a life finer than ours." Otherwise, the constant impact upon the anxious gazes of those poor little ones of the death of children and adults all around them, would overwhelm their powers of resistance and inner strength, and would cause not only their eyes but all of their inner faculties - spirit, heart, and intellect - so to weep that they would either be destroyed or become like crazed and wretched animals.

THE SECOND PROOF: Old people, who make up another fourth of humanity, can support the proximity of the grave only by means of the afterlife. Only by this means can they find some consolation for the approaching extinction of the worldly life to which they are so bound and the closing off to them of this fair world. Only through the hope of eternal life can they confront the painful and awesome despair that arise from the anticipation of death and separation, despite the vulnerability of their spirits and temperaments that approaches that of children. Otherwise, all those venerable aged beings deserving of pity, all those anxious mothers and fathers, greatly in need of tranquillity and assurance of heart, would experience such distraughtness of spirit and disturbance of heart that the world would appear to them as a dark dungeon and life too as grievous torment.

THE THIRD PROOF: It is only thought of Hell that enables young men -the source and fundament of all social life- to restrain their turbulent feelings and tempestuous souls and passions from committing transgression, oppression and destruction, and to make them serve instead the purposes of social life. Were there not the fear of Hell, those intoxicated youths would follow the principle, "might is right," and running after their passions would turn the world into a hell for the weak and the feeble; they would bring down humanity to a lowly and bestial state.

THE FOURTH PROOF: The most comprehensive centre of the human race in its worldly life, its most fundamental resource, its paradise, refuge and stronghold of worldly happiness, is the life of the family. Everyone's home is like a small world for him. The vitality and happiness of his home and his family depend upon earnest, sincere and devoted respect, upon true caring and self-sacrificing compassion. This in turn depends on an eternal friendship, an everlasting companionship, an immortal bond, and the belief in the existence of paternal, filial, fraternal and friendly relations that are to exist for an infinite period and in a life everlasting. One will say for example:

"This wife of mine will be my permanent life's companion, in an eternal world and an eternal life. If she has now become old and ugly, it does not matter. For she has an eternal beauty that will manifest itself in the future, and it is on account of such eternal companionship that I now make sacrifices and show her compassion."

He will thus treat his aged wife with as much love, compassion and care as if she were a beautiful Houri. Otherwise, a companionship that ends in eternal separation after a few hours' of bodily marriage would be without doubt superficial, temporary and unfounded. It would be nothing more than the sexual instinct of animals, other interests and powerful feelings would arise and, defeating that respect and concern, turn the worldly paradise into a worldly hell.

One of the hundreds of consequences of belief in resurrection relates, then, to the social life of man. If the numerous other aspects and benefits of this single consequence are deduced by analogy with these four, it can be understood that the occurrence of the verity of resurrection is as certain as the sublime truth of humanity and its universal need. It will be even more manifest than the proof provided for the existence of food by the existence of need in men's stomachs. If the consequences of the verity of resurrection are subtracted from the human state, the essence of humanity - important, exalted and vital humanity - will descend to the state of carrion, a corpse fed on by microbes.

Let the sociologists, politicians and moralists who concern themselves with the administration of humanity, with morals and human society, pay close attention! How do they intend to fill this vacuum, and with what will they cure these deep wounds?

n SECOND POINT

We set forth now, in extremely compact fashion, one proof that emerges from the testimony given to resurrection by the other pillars of faith.

All the miracles indicating the messengerhood of Muhammed - peace and blessings be upon him - all the proofs of his prophethood, and all the evidences of his veracity, together bear witness to and establish the reality of the veracity of resurrection. For throughout his life that exalted being concentrated, after the Unity of God, on resurrection, among all the articles of faith. Indeed, the miracles and proofs attesting to all the prophets, and causing men to attest to them, bear witness to the same truth. Similarly, belief in "His messengers" is necessarily followed by belief in "His books," and this too bears testimony to the same truth.

All the miracles, proofs and truths that establish the veracity of the Qur'an of Glorious Exposition bear witness to and prove the reality of the truth of resurrection. For about one-third of the Qur'an consists of mentions of the hereafter, and most short suras begin with very powerful verses concerning the hereafter. The Qur'an proclaims this truth with thousands of verses, explicitly or implicitly. It proves it and demonstrates it. For example:

When the sun is folded up,41

O men, fear your Lord; the trembling of the hour

is an awesome event;42

When the earth is convulsed;43

When the heavens are torn asunder;44

When the heavens are torn apart;45

Concerning what do they dispute?46

Has the story reached you, of the overwhelming event?47

Just as these verses at the beginning of thirty or forty suras show with the utmost certainty that the truth of resurrection is the most important and essential of the truths of humanity, so too other verses demonstrate and prove the various evidences of the same truth.

Is it at all possible that belief in resurrection should be untrue, a belief made as manifest as the sun by the additional thousands of testimonies and claims advanced in a Book which bears the fruit of all the numerous scientific and cosmic truths contained in the Islamic sciences, although a single indication of a single verse would suffice? Will it not be a thousand times impossible and absurd, just like denial of the sun, or the non-existence of the cosmos?

A king will sometimes send forth an army into battle merely so that a single indication of his should not be considered a lie; is it, then, at all possible to consider as lies the thousands of words, promises and threats of that most serious and proud Monarch, for them to be false?

Now for the proof of this truth of resurrection a single indication suffices from that Glorious Monarch who has ruled for thirteen centuries uninterruptedly over countless spirits, intellects, hearts and souls, within the sphere of righteousness and truth, and has administered and educated them. After it has proven and demonstrated this truth with thousands of explicit evidences, is not the ignorant fool who fails to recognize this truth worthy of torment in hellfire, and will it not be just for him to suffer therein?

Similarly, all the heavenly scriptures and sacred books, each addressed to a certain age and time, accept the truth of resurrection that is set forth with repeated, detailed, and explicit proof in the Qur'an, a book addressed to the future and to all ages. They accept it in a fashion, but they assert it so powerfully as to constitute a thousandfold signature to the claim of the Qur'an.

We will include here, because of its relevance to the theme of resurrection, a proof of resurrection drawn from the Treatise of Supplication. This proof, containing the testimony borne to "belief in the Last Day" by the other pillars of belief, particularly belief in God's Messengers and His Books, is brief but powerful, and it suffices to dissolve all doubts.

We thus say in supplication:

"O Merciful Lord! Through the teaching of the Most Noble Messenger and the instruction of the All-Wise Qur'an, I have understood that all the sacred books and prophets, headed by the Qur'an and the Most Noble Messenger, unanimously testify and bear witness that the manifestations of all of God's Splendid and Beauteous Names that are to be seen everywhere in this world will continue in eternity in still more refulgent form; that the Divine bounties the merciful manifestations and specimens of which we observe in this transient world will persist and continue in more brilliant fashion in the Abode of Felicity; and that those desirous ones who behold them during the brief life of this world with pleasure and accompany each other in love, will remain together eternally in the hereafter.

"Moreover, the prophets, headed by the Most Noble Messenger, who hold in their hands all illuminated spirits; the saints, who are the poles of all luminous hearts; and the veracious servants of God who are the source from which spring all acute bright intellects - they together give to men the glad tidings of eternal felicity. Further, they proclaim and testify with firm faith that hellfire exists for the sake of the misguided and Paradise for the truly guided. This they do on the basis of hundreds of self-evident miracles and decisive verses; the promises and threats You have repeated in all sacred books and heavenly scriptures; all Your sacred Names and aspects, such as power, mercy, grace, wisdom, splendour and beauty, that necessitate the existence of the hereafter; the dignity of Your Splendour and the Monarchy of Your Dominicality; and the numerous visions and witnessings, beliefs and convictions having the force of certainty, that convey to us the traces and effects of the hereafter.

"O All-Wise and All-Powerful One! O Compassionate and Merciful One! O Generous One Ever True to His Promise! O Imperious and Glorious One, the Possessor of Splendour, Magnificence and Exaltation!

"You are exalted and exempt to the hundred thousandth degree from making so many of Your sincere friends appear to be liars, from rendering mendacious the testimony of so many of Your Names and aspects; from refuting and failing to perform that which is decisively necessitated by the Sovereignty of Your Dominicality; from rejecting the countless prayers and petitions for the hereafter of Your countless servants whom You love and who seek Your love with belief in You and obedience to You; and from assenting to the denial of resurrection made by the people of misguidance who insult Your Glory and Majesty with their rebellious misbelief and their denial of Your promises, who transgress against the Majesty of Your Divinity and attack the Mercy of Your Dominicality. We proclaim to the hundred thousandth degree the transcendence and sanctity of Your infinite Justice, Beauty and Mercy, and their exaltation above such infinite oppression and abomination. We believe with all of our power in the truth and veracity of the testimony given by the hundreds of thousands of truthful messengers, all the prophets, purified ones and saints, the heralds of God's Sovereignty, to the treasures of Your eternal mercy, to the riches of Your bounty concealed in the everlasting realm, and the wondrous and miraculous manifestations of Your Beautiful Names that will appear in their plentitude in the abode of felicity. Their indications are true and correct, their predictions are veracious. They teach Your servants, by Your command and within the sphere of truth, that the greatest ray to emerge from the name "Reality" - which is the source, the sun and the protector of all verities - is the supreme truth of resurrection. In this they believe, and then teach it as the essence of truth. O Lord! For the sake of the teaching and instruction they give, bestow upon us and the students of the Risale-i Nur perfect belief and fair ending to our life, and grant that we may partake of their intercession! Amen."

All the proofs and evidences that establish the veracity of the Qur'an, and, indeed, of all the heavenly books, as well as all the miracles and proofs that establish the prophethood of the Beloved of God, and indeed, of all the prophets, point to the reality of the hereafter, which is the supreme part of what the books and the messengers claim. Similarly, the majority of the proofs and evidences for the existence and the Unity of the One of Necessary Being also indirectly attest the existence and the unfolding of the abode of felicity and the realm of eternity that is the chief pivot and manifestation of Dominicality and Divinity. For, as will be set forth and demonstrated below, the existence of the One of Necessary Being, all of His attributes, most of His Names, and His properties and aspects such as Dominicality, Divinity, grace, wisdom, justice, require the existence of the hereafter as a matter of necessity; they necessitate an eternal realm as an imperative, and they demand resurrection for the most necessary purpose of punishment and reward. Since there is a God, existent before and after eternity, there must also be a hereafter that is the everlasting pivot of His Divine Sovereignty. And since there is visible in the cosmos and all animate beings a most magnificent, wise and solicitous Absolute Dominicality, there must also be an eternal realm of felicity to which entry will be had, in order to preserve His magnificence from extinction, His wisdom from vanity, and His solicitousness from treachery.

Now all these infinite bounties, blessings, kindnesses, munificence and mercies that we behold with our eyes, demonstrate to every intellect that has not been extinguished, and every heart that has not died, that a Compassionate and Merciful Being exists beyond the veil of the unseen. There must, then, be -as indeed there is- an eternal life in an eternal world that will safeguard His bounties against mockery, His blessings against deceit, His kindness against hostility, His mercy against torment, and His munificence against treachery; and that will make bounty of His bounty and blessings of His blessing.

Every spring a Pen of Power is tirelessly at work in front of our eyes, inscribing on the narrow page of the earth a hundred thousand interwoven books, all without the smallest mistake. The Owner of that pen has promised and sworn a hundred thousand times that "I shall write, and cause you to read, a beautiful and immortal book, in a far more expansive place than this, and in a fashion far easier than this cramped and confused book of spring, written on so narrow a page." He mentions this book in all of His decrees. The original draft of the book has without doubt been written; it will be set down in writing with all its footnotes on the day of resurrection. The record of deeds of all creation will then be incorporated in it.

Now the earth has a supreme importance as the heart of the cosmos; it is its centre, its choice part, its ultimate consequence and the very reason for its creation. This is because of the multiplicity of the beings found in it, and because it is the abode, the origin, the workshop, and the place of display and resurrection of hundreds of thousands of different kinds of constantly changing animate beings. Despite the smallness of its size, it has been made the equivalent of the vast heavens. Thus we always read in the heavenly books, "the Sustainer of the Heavens and the Earth."

The human race also has supreme importance. It rules over every part of the earth we have just described; has control over most of its creatures; subordinates to itself and gathers around itself almost all animate beings; orders, displays and adorns created objects according to the design of their own desires and the plan of their own needs and draws up a list of their wondrous variety, with each species in its own place, in so fine a fashion that it draws not only the gaze of men and of jinn, but also the appreciative attention of the denizens of the heavens and the whole of the cosmos, and even the admiring glance of the Lord of the cosmos. The human race thus acquires great value and importance, and it further demonstrates by means of its arts and sciences that it is the wise reason for the creation of the cosmos, that it is the great consequence and supreme fruit of creation, that it acts upon earth as the vicegerent of God. Since in this world it displays and orders the miraculous works of the Maker, it is permitted to tarry in this world and its punishment is postponed, despite its acts of rebellion and disbelief. Because of the services it performs, the human race is granted a respite and is aided by God.

Now the human race, possessing the nature we have described, is extremely weak and impotent with respect to its fundamental nature and disposition. Yet, despite this weakness and indigence, and the infinite needs and pains to which mankind is subject, there is a most powerful, wise and solicitous Ruler Who, in a way altogether beyond the power and will of man, makes of the vast globe a storehouse containing every kind of mineral and food he needs and a shop stocked with all the goods he desires. Thus does the Ruler take care of and nurture mankind, granting it its wishes.

The Sustainer then possesses these qualities. He loves man, and makes Himself beloved of man. He is eternal, and has eternal worlds. He performs all things with justice, and does all things with wisdom. But the magnificent sovereignty and eternal kingship of that Pre-Eternal Ruler cannot be fully contained within the brief life of this world, this temporary and transient earth. Moreover, the extremely great acts of oppression and rebellion that take place among men in opposition and contradiction to the justice, the equilibrium and the beauty of the cosmos, their treachery, denial, and unbelief toward their Benefactor and Provider - all these remain unpunished in this world, and the cruel and the treacherous spend their lives in ease, while the wretched and the oppressed pass theirs in misery. But the very essence of the Absolute Justice, the traces of which are to be seen throughout the cosmos, is totally opposed to and irreconcilable with the idea that the cruel and treacherous - who die equally in this world with the oppressed and desperate ones - should never be resurrected.

The master of the cosmos has chosen and given high rank and importance to the world out of all the cosmos, and to mankind out of all the creatures of the world. In similar fashion, He has chosen from among humankind, as His friends and the objects of His address, the prophets, the saints and the purified scholars, for they are true men who fully conform to the Dominical purposes of creation, who make themselves beloved of their Maker through belief and submission. He ennobles them with miracles and Divine support, and punishes their enemies with heavenly blows.

And choosing from among His precious and beloved friends their leader and pivot, Muhammed, upon whom be peace and blessings, He illumines with his light for long centuries one half of the exalted globe and one fifth of exalted mankind. It is as if the cosmos had been created for his sake; all of its aims become manifest through him, his religion, and his Qur'an. Although he deserved and was fitting to receive reward over an infinite period of time for the infinite and valuable services he performed - services that usually would take millions of years to perform - he was granted a very brief life of no more than sixty-three years, and that, too, was spent in struggle and toil. Is it at all possible, imaginable or conceivable that that being should not be resurrected, together with all of his peers and companions? That even now he should not be alive in the spirit? That he should vanish into an eternal void? No, a thousand times no!

Yes, the whole cosmos and the essence of the world demand his reanimation, request his life from the Master of the cosmos. In the Supreme Sign, which constitutes the Seventh Ray, thirty-three unanimous agreements, each as strong as a mountain, have proven that the cosmos is the work of a single hand, the realm of a single sovereign. They have shown to be self-evident the Unity and Oneness that are the pivot of all Divine perfections. It is by means of Unity and Oneness that the whole of the cosmos acquires the aspect of the obedient servants and submissive officials of that Unique Being. Similarly, it is by means of the coming of the hereafter that God's perfections are preserved from decline; His absolute justice, from mocking and utter treachery; His universal wisdom, from foolish vanity; His comprehensive mercy, from frivolous torment; His exalted power from wretched impotence.

Resurrection will take place of an absolute certainty, by reason of the eight points set forth above, eight out of the hundreds of points connected with belief in God. Resurrection will take place, abodes of reward and punishment will open their gates. Then only will the true significance and centrality of the earth, and the true significance and value of man be fulfilled. Then will the justice, wisdom, mercy and sovereignty of the Wise Ruler, Who is the Creator and Sustainer of earth and man, manifest itself anew. Then will the true friends and ardent lovers of the Eternal Sustainer be delivered from eternal annihilation, and the greatest and most precious of those friends receive the reward for the sacred services with which he gratified the whole cosmos. Then will the perfections of the Sovereign of Eternity claim their exaltation, transcendence and freedom from all defect; His power, its freedom from all foolishness, and His justice, its freedom from all oppression.

In short: Since there is God, certainly there is the hereafter.

The three pillars of belief set forth above attest and bear witness, then, to resurrection with all the evidences that prove them. So too the remaining two pillars of faith contained in these words - "and in His angels and in Divine Determining or destiny, all of it, both good and evil being from God Almighty" - necessitate resurrection and bear witness to and indicate the world of eternity in most powerful fashion.

All of the proofs and infinite witnessings and discourses that prove the existence of the angels and their function of servitude to God, also attest indirectly the existence of the world of spirits, the world of the unseen, the world of the hereafter, the abode of felicity that is in the future to be animated by both men and jinn, and Paradise and Hell. For the angels perceive and enter those worlds, by God's leave, and all the angels drawn nigh to God's throne, such as Gabriel, who communicate with men, report the existence of those worlds and unanimously describe their voyagings there. Just as we accept without question the existence of the American continent that we ourselves have never seen on the basis of the reports of returning travellers, so too we must similarly believe most firmly - as we indeed do believe - in the existence of the realm of eternity, of the hereafter, of Paradise and Hell, on the basis of the reports given by the angels, reports that have the authority of one hundred undisputed narrations.

Again, all the proofs contained in the treatise on Divine Determining or destiny, which constitutes the Twenty-Sixth Word, establishing the pillar of belief in Divine Determining, attest indirectly to resurrection, to the publishing of the records of deeds, and the weighing of men's deeds that shall take place in the supreme balance. For the events in the existence of all things is recorded before our eyes on the tablets of order and balance; the biography of every animate being is inscribed in its memory, in its seed, and other tablet-like objects; the deeds of every being endowed with spirit, and especially man, are registered on preserved tablets. So all-embracing a determining, so wise an ordaining, so precise a recording, so exact an inscribing, can be only for the sake of a permanent reward and punishment to be awarded at the Supreme Judgement as the result of a universal tribunal. Otherwise, that all-embracing and punctilious recording and registering would be totally pointless and meaningless. It would be contrary to wisdom and reality. Moreover, were resurrection not to occur, all the well verified meanings inscribed in the Book of the Universe by the Pen of Divine Determining would be destroyed. This is something totally impossible, something as absurd and lunatic as the denial of the existence of the universe.

In short: The five pillars of faith, together with all of their proofs, indicate and demand the occurrence and existence of resurrection, and the existence and unfolding of the realm of the hereafter. They bear witness to it and necessitate it. It is because there are such imposing and unshakeable supports and proofs for the truth of resurrection, totally worthy of its sublimity, that the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition devotes about one third of its contents to resurrection, makes of it the foundation stone of all of its truths, and constructs everything on its basis.

(The end of the Introduction)

* * *




















Second Part

of the Addendum

The first of nine stations comprising the nine levels of proofs of resurrection miraculously indicated in the following verse:

Glory be to God in the evening and at daybreak, and praise is His in the heavens and earth, at nightfall and when the day begins to decline. It is He Who brings forth the living from the dead, and brings forth the dead from the living, and gives life to the earth after its death; thus, too, will you be brought forth.48

The manifest proof and brilliant evidence of God's decree concerning resurrection contained in this verse will now be expounded and set forth, God willing.49

In connection with the twenty-eighth property of life it was explained that life looks upon the six pillars of faith and proves them; it contains a series of indications of their truth.

Now the most important result, substance and reason for the creation of the cosmos is none other than life, and life, that exalted verity, can in no way be restricted to this transient, brief, defective and painful worldly life. Rather the purpose and result of the tree of life, the splendour of which can be deduced from its twenty-nine properties, the fruit of that tree worthy of its splendour, is the eternal life of the hereafter; it is life in the eternal realm where even stones, trees and the soil will be endowed with life. Otherwise, it will follow that the tree of life, so plentifully decked out with significant instruments, yields no fruit, benefit or truth for animate beings, especially man; and man who in his substance and faculties is twenty times superior to the sparrow and is indeed the most important and elevated of all creation, will fall to a degree twenty times lower than that of the sparrow; with respect to the felicity of his life, he will be the most unfortunate and humiliated of wretches.

Similarly, intelligence, the most precious of gifts for man, will wound his heart through constant reflection of the pains of the past and the fears of the future; it will mix nine pains with every pleasure and thus become a disaster to man. Now this is false to the hundredth degree. The life of this world thus proves decisively the pillar of faith that is belief in the hereafter and displays to our eyes every spring more than three hundred thousand specimens of resurrection.

Is it at all possible that an All-Powerful Agent Who promptly supplies and provides, with wisdom, solicitude and mercy, all the instruments and tools needed for your life, in your body, your garden and your homeland, Who hears and answers the private and particular prayer made for sustenance by your stomach, for the sake of its life and survival, Who shows His acceptance of that prayer by means of numerous delicious foods - is it at all possible that such a Being should not be aware of you or hear you, that He should not provide you with the means of life eternal, the greatest purpose of the human species? Is it possible that He should not accept the greatest, most significant, most worthy and most universal prayer for eternity of the human species by establishing eternal life and creating paradise? Is it possible that He should not heed the universal and insistent prayer of the human species, the most important creature in the cosmos, the monarch of the earth, a prayer that resounds throughout heaven and earth, and not pay it the same attention, or grant it the same gratification, as a little stomach? Is it possible that He should thus cause His perfect wisdom and infinite mercy to be denied? No, a hundred thousand times no!

Again, is it at all possible that He should hear the most secret voice of the most minute of beings, remedy its pain and succour its plaint; that He should nourish it with the utmost care and consideration and cause creatures greater than itself to serve it - is it at all possible that He should do all of this and not hear the thunderous cry of life, the greatest, most precious, most eternal and most delicate form of life? That He should pay no heed to its powerful prayer and supplications for eternity? It would be like equipping a single soldier with the utmost care and totally ignoring a vast and obedient army! Like seeing a speck and overlooking the sun! Like hearing the buzz of a fly and not hearing the roar of the thunder! No, a hundred thousand times no!

Again, can the intelligence at all accept that an All-Powerful and All-Wise Being, Whose mercy, love and solicitude are infinite, Who loves His own artistry, Who causes Himself to be loved, and Who greatly loves those that love Him - can it accept that such a Being would annihilate through permanent death a life that loves Him greatly, that is itself lovable and that instinctively worships its Maker; and, the essence and jewel of that life, the spirit? That He would offend and insult His lover and beloved for all eternity, that He would injure his feelings and deny Himself, and cause others to deny, the mystery of His mercy and the light of His love? No, a hundred thousand times no! An absolute beauty that adorns creation with its manifestation and the absolute mercy that makes all creatures rejoice are without doubt exempt and purified from such infinite ugliness, such utter abomination and pitilessness.

The result, then, is that considering the existence of life, those men who understand the purpose of life and who do not misuse their lives will become manifestations of eternal life in the realm of eternity and eternal Paradise. In this we believe. So, too, the shining of brilliant objects found on the earth through the reflection of sunlight, the brief glinting on the surface of the ocean of little bubbles through flashes of light, and the coming in their place of further bubbles that like them hold up a mirror to a whole series of imaginary suns - this demonstrates tangibly that those flashes are the reflectory manifestation of the one supreme sun. With their manifold tongues, they make mention of that one sun and they point toward it with their luminous fingers.

So, too, the fashion in which, through the supreme manifestation of the Name 'Giver of Life' of the Living and Self-Subsistent Being, all the animate beings on the face of the earth and in the depths of the sea shine through God's power, and then disappear behind the veil of the unseen, saying, "O Eternally Living One!", in order to make room for those that follow them - this represents a series of testimonies to and indications of the life and necessary existence of the Living and Self-Subsistent Being.

Similarly, all the proofs that bear witness to the Divine knowledge the traces of which are visible in the ordering of all beings; all the evidences that establish the existence of a power working its will throughout creation; all the arguments that point to a volition and purposefulness dominating the ordering and administering of the cosmos; all the signs and miracles that attest the messengerhood of the prophets, the means of Dominical Speech and Divine Revelation, and the indications bearing witness to the seven attributes of Divinity - all of them point to, testify to, and indicate unanimously the life of the Living and Self-Subsistent Being. For if the faculty of vision is present in a thing, there must also be life. If there is hearing, this too is a sign of life. If there is speech, this also points to the existence of life.

Similarly, attributes the existence of which is proven and self-evident by virtue of their traces throughout the cosmos, attributes such as Absolute Power, All-Embracing Will, and Comprehensive Knowledge, bear witness with all of their proofs to the life and necessary existence of the Living and Self-Subsistent Being. They attest His everlasting life, one shadow of which is enough to illumine the whole of the cosmos, and one manifestation of which suffices to give life to the hereafter, together with all of its particles.

The Divine attribute of life is also connected with the pillar of belief in the angels, and proves it by way of indication. For the most important of all goals of the cosmos is life, and animate beings constitute the most widespread form of creation, with its specimens multiplied on account of their value; they constantly animate the hospice of this world with the coming and going of their caravans. Further, the globe, which is filled with so many species of animate beings, is being constantly emptied and refilled as these various species are renewed and multiplied, and animate beings are created in multiplicity even in the vilest and most corrupt substances, so that there is - as it were - a constant resurrection of microbes. Finally, consciousness and intellect, which are the distilled essence of life, and the spirit, which is its subtle and stable substance, are also created everywhere on the globe in the utmost multiplicity, so that it is as if the globe were animated and caused to rejoice by life, intellect, consciousness and spirit. If we take into consideration all of the foregoing, it is totally impossible that the heavenly bodies, which are subtler, more luminous, greater and more significant than the globe, should be dead, rigid, lifeless, and dumb.

There must, then, exist and be provided with the property of life, conscious and animate beings that animate the skies, the suns, and the stars, bestow upon them their vitality, manifest the result of the purpose for the creation of the heavens, and receive address from the Glorious Creator. These creatures, of a nature suited to the heavens, are none other than the angels.

Similarly, the innermost essence of life symbolically proves the pillar of belief in the prophets. For the cosmos was created for the sake of life, and life is in turn one of the supreme manifestations of the Living, Self-Subsistent and Eternal One. It is one of His most perfect designs, one of His most beauteous arts. Further, the eternal life of God shows itself only through the sending of messengers and the revelation of books. If there were no books or prophets, then eternal life would remain unknown. When a man speaks, he is recognized to be alive. Similarly, it is the prophets and revealed books that make manifest the words and decrees of the Being Who, from behind the world of the unseen that is veiled by the cosmos, speaks, talks, and emits His commands and prohibitions. Just as the life existent in the cosmos bears decisive witness to the necessary existence of the Living and Eternal One, so too does it point to and indirectly confirm the pillars of belief in the sending of messengers and the revelation of scriptures, for these are the rays, the manifestations, and the relations of that eternal life. And especially the Prophethood of Muhammed - upon whom be peace and blessings - and the Qur'anic revelation, since they are like the very spirit and intellect of life, their veracity is as indisputable as the existence of this life.

Life is, then, the distilled essence of the cosmos; consciousness and feeling are the distilled essence of life; the intellect is the distilled essence of consciousness; and the spirit, finally, is the pure and unsullied substance, the stable and autonomous essence, that lies at the heart of life. So, too, the life of the Prophet Muhammed - upon whom be blessings and peace - in both its outer and its inner aspects is the distilled quintessence of life and the spirit of the cosmos, and the Prophethood of Muhammed - upon whom be blessings and peace - is the pure and distilled essence of the feeling, the consciousness and the intellect of the cosmos. Rather, the life of the Prophet Muhammed - upon whom be blessings and peace - in its outer and inner aspects is, as the centuries have borne witness, the very essence of the life of the cosmos, and the Prophethood of Muhammed - upon whom be blessings and peace - is the very light and essence of the consciousness of the cosmos. The Qur'anic revelation is also the spirit of the life of the cosmos and the intellect of its consciousness.

If the light of the Prophethood of Muhammed, upon whom be blessings and peace, were to depart from the cosmos and vanish, the cosmos would die. If the Qur'an were to depart, the cosmos would lose its sanity, and the globe would lose its sense and its head. Its dizzy, uncomprehending head would collide with a planet, and the end of the world would result.

Life also looks to the pillar of belief in Divine Determining, and proves it indirectly. Because, since life is the light of the Manifest World, and it dominates it, and is the result and aim of existence, and since it is the most comprehensive mirror of the Creator of the universe and the most perfect sample and index of Dominical activity, and - let there be no mistake in the comparison - is like a sort of programme, for sure, the mystery of life necessitates that the creatures in the World of the Unseen, that is, the past and the future, that is, that have been and will come, are predisposed to conform to order, regularity, being known and observed, specific individual existence, and the creative commands, which are their lives in one respect.

The original seed of a tree and its root, as well as the seeds contained in its fruit and final outcome, all manifest a sort of life, no less than the tree itself; indeed, they bear within themselves laws of life more subtle than those of the tree. Similarly, the seeds and roots left by last autumn, before the present spring, as well as the seeds and roots that will be left to subsequent springs after this spring has departed - they all bear the manifestations of life, just like this spring, and are subject to the laws of life. In just the same way, all the branches and twigs of the cosmic tree each have a past and a future. They have a chain consisting of past and future stages and circumstances. The multiple existences and stages of each species and each member of each species, existing in Divine knowledge, forms a chain of being in God's knowledge, and both its external existence, and its existence in God's knowledge, is a manifestation of universal life that draws all the aspects of its life from these meaningful and vital Tablets of Divine Determining.

The fact that the World of Spirits - which is one form of the World of the Unseen - is full of the essence of life, the matter of life and the spirits, which are the substances and essence of life, demands and requires of a certainty that past and future - which are another form of the World of the Unseen and its second segment - should also receive the manifestation of life.

In addition, the perfect order, the meaningful circumstances and vital fruits and stages inherent in the existence of a thing within God's knowledge, also demonstrate the manifestation of a sort of life. Such a manifestation of life, which is the light emitted by the sun of eternal life, cannot be limited to this manifest world, this present time, this external existence. On the contrary, each world receives the manifestation of that light in accordance with its capacity, and the cosmos together with all its worlds is alive and illumined through it. Otherwise, as the misguided imagine, beneath a temporary and apparent life, each world would be a vast and terrible corpse, a dark ruin.

One broad aspect of the pillar of faith in Divine Determining and Decree is, then, understood through the mystery of life and is established by it. Just as the life and vitality of the Manifest World and existent, visible objects becomes apparent from their orderliness and the consequences of their existence, so too past and future creatures - regarded as belonging to the World of the Unseen - have an immaterial existence and sort of life, and a spiritual presence in God's knowledge. The trace of this life and presence is made manifest and known by means of the Tablet of Divine Determining and Decree and through all the stages and circumstances of their external lives and existences.

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Third Part

of the Addendum

A question with respect to resurrection.

Verses of the Qur'an, such as the oft-repeated, It will be naught but a single cry,50 and, The command of the hour of resurrection will be like the glance of the eye,51 show that the supreme resurrection will take place in a single instant, without the passage of any time. Our narrow intellects require some tangible parable to enable us to accept and assent to this infinitely miraculous and unparalleled statement.

The answer to the question: There are three Matters concerning the resurrection: Spirits will return to their bodies, and bodies will be reanimated, and bodies will be resurrected.

THE FIRST MATTER: A parable for the return of spirits to their bodies is the following. The soldiers of a highly disciplined army, having dispersed in all directions in order to rest, are summoned together with a loud re-echoing blast on the trumpet. Now the Sur, the trumpet of Israfil, is certainly no less powerful than that army's trumpet, and the spirits of men while still in the world of post-eternity and the realm of the particle, which heard the address of "am I not your Lord" coming from pre-eternity and answered, "indeed Thou art," are more obedient, disciplined and submissive than the soldiers in that army. It was proven, moreover, in the Thirtieth Word, with the firmest of proofs, that not only the spirits but all particles, too, form the obedient members of a Divine Army.

THE SECOND MATTER: A parable for the reanimation of bodies. Just as in a great city, on a festive night, a hundred thousand lamps may be lit from a single power station, in a single instant, without the apparent passage of any time, so too it is possible to switch on a hundred million electric lamps all over the globe from a single power station. If a creation of God Almighty such as electricity, a servant and a candleholder in His hospice, can manifest this property through the lesson of training and discipline it has learned from its Creator, then resurrection may also take place in a fraction of a second, within the framework of the orderly laws of Divine Wisdom, which thousands of luminous servants, like electricity, represent.

THE THIRD MATTER: A parable for the instant resurrection of bodies. In reality, there is not one parable for the resurrection of human bodies on the day of resurrection; there are thousands of parables. Some are the following: the fashion in which all the leaves of all trees are restored in the most perfect form, almost identically to those of the preceding spring, within a few days at the beginning of each spring, even though the trees are a thousand times more numerous than all the members of the human race; the way in which all the flowers and fruits of all trees are re-created just like those of the preceding spring, as swiftly as lightning; the sudden awakening, unfolding and coming to life of all those countless seeds, kernels and roots that are the origin of spring; the way in which trees, resembling erect skeletons, are suddenly caused to receive the manifestation of "resurrection after death"; the animation in most wondrous form of the countless members of all the classes of little animals; especially the resurrection of the flies in their tribes, and in particular the raising up, reanimation and resurrection in the course of a few days every spring, together with other tribes, of the members of this tribe, more numerous than all the sons of the human race, from the time of Adam down to the present, who constantly teach us ablution and cleanliness by constantly cleansing their faces, eyes and wings, and always caress us.

Now this world is the realm of wisdom, and the hereafter is the abode of power. In this world, therefore, in accordance with the requirements of Names such as All-Wise, Arranger, Disposer, and Nurturer, the creation of things is to some degree gradual and extends over time. This is required by Dominical wisdom. But since in the hereafter power and mercy are more manifest than is wisdom, things are created instantly without leaving any need for matter, time or delay. The Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition decrees, in allusion to the fact that matters that require here in this world a whole day or a whole year will be completed in the hereafter in an instant, a flash: The command of the hour (of resurrection) will be like the glance of an eye, or briefer.52

If you wish to understand with full certainty that resurrection will come just like next spring, pay good attention to the Tenth Word and the Twenty-Ninth Word, both of which deal with resurrection. If you then still do not believe in it like the coming of the spring, then come and insert your finger in my eye!

THE FOURTH MATTER: The death of the world and the coming of resurrection. If a planet or comet collides with this globe we inhabit like a hospice by the command of God, it may destroy our home, just as a palace that took ten years to build may be destroyed in a single minute.

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Fourth Part

of the Addendum

He said: "Who shall give life to decaying bones?" Say: "He shall give them life who first gave them life, and He is All-Knowing concerning all creation."53

As was illustrated in the third comparison in the Ninth Truth of the Tenth Word, some personage may one day summon together before your eyes a great army. If someone were then to say, "that personage is able to call together the troops in his army, who had dispersed to take rest, and assemble them again in battalions," and you were to say, "I don't believe it," you know well how lunatic would be your denial. So too, an All-Powerful and All-Knowing Being Who out of nothing recorded and put in place, with the command of, 'Be!', and it is, all the particles and subtle aspects of the bodies of all animals and other animate beings, as if they were an army with the utmost orderliness and wise equilibrium, and Who creates each century, or rather each spring, the hundreds of thousands of different species and groups of animate beings that populate the face of the earth, each like an army - such a Being can gather together, with one blow on the trump of Israfil, all the fundamental particles and original components that enjoy mutual acquaintance through joint submission to the order of the body that corresponds to a battalion. Were you to say, "how can this be?" or consider it unlikely, it would be idiotic lunacy.

It sometimes happens in the Qur'an that, in order to impress upon the heart the wondrous deeds He will perform in the hereafter and to prepare the mind for acceptance of them, God Almighty mentions the wondrous deeds He performs in this world as a kind of preparation. Alternatively, He may sometimes mention the wondrous deeds He will perform in the future and the hereafter in such a fashion that we are convinced of them by analogy with the similar deeds we observe in this world. One example is furnished by the verse,

Has not man seen that We created him from a drop of sperm?

And then he becomes an open disputer.54

and the remaining verses of the same sura. The All-Wise Qur'an thus proves the question of resurrection in seven or eight different forms.

It first directs man's attention to his own origins. It says "you see how you advanced from a drop of sperm to a drop of blood, from a drop of blood to a formless lump of flesh, and from a formless lump of flesh to human form. How, then, can you deny your second creation? It is just the same as the first, or even easier of accomplishment for God." God Almighty also refers to the great bounties He has bestowed on man with phrases such as:

He Who made fire for you from the green tree55

and says to man: "Will the Being Who thus bestowed bounty upon you leave you to your own devices, in such fashion that you enter the grave to sleep without rising again?" He also hints at the following: "You see how dead trees come to life and grow green again. Refusing to regard as a parallel the reanimation of your bones, that resemble dry wood, you dismiss the whole matter as improbable. Now is it at all possible that the One Who creates the heavens and earth should not be empowered over the life and death of man, the fruit of heaven and earth? Do you imagine that He would make fruitless and vain the tree of creation that He has moulded with wisdom in all its parts, by abandoning the supreme result of that tree?"

The Qur'an says further: "The Being That will restore you to life at resurrection is such that the whole cosmos is like an obedient soldier of His. It bows its head submissively whenever it hears the command,

'Be!', and it is.56

To create a spring is easier for Him than the creation of a flower. To create the whole of the animal realm is as easy for His power as creating a fly. None may belittlingly challenge His power by saying to Him:

Who will give life to the bones?57

Then, from the verse,

Glory be to Him in Whose hand lies the sovereignty of all things,58

we see that the index of all things is in His hand, the key to all things is in His possession; He rotates night and day, winter and summer, with as much ease as if He were turning the pages of a book. He is an All-Powerful, Glorious Being Who closes the door on this world and opens it on the hereafter as if they were two stations. This being the case, as the result of the mentioned evidences,

To Him you shall return,59

that is, He will bring you back to life from your graves, take you to the plain of resurrection, and judge you in His majestic presence.

Now these verses prepare the mind and make ready the heart to accept the reality of resurrection, for they have demonstrated parallels to resurrection in worldly processes. Sometimes it also happens that He mentions the deeds He will perform in the hereafter in such a way as to draw attention to their worldly parallels, so that no room should be left for doubt and denial. Examples are the suras introduced by these verses:

When the sun is rolled up,60

When the heavens are torn asunder .61

In these Suras, God Almighty mentions resurrection and the vast revolutions and Dominical deeds that shall take place at that time, in such a fashion that man thinks of their worldly parallels that he has seen in autumn and spring, and then, with awe in his heart, easily accepts what the intellect would otherwise refuse. Even to indicate the general meaning of the three suras just mentioned would take very long. Let us, then, take simply one word as a specimen of the whole. With the words,

When the pages are spread out ,62

God Almighty expresses the following: "Upon resurrection, everyone's deeds will be revealed on a written page. This appears to be very strange, and totally beyond the reach of reason. But as the Sura indicates, just as the resurrection of the spring is a parallel to other matters, so too the 'spreading out of pages' has a very clear parallel. Every fruit-bearing tree, every flowering plant has its deeds, actions and functions. It performs a certain kind of worship, depending on the fashion in which it glorifies God through the manifestations of His Names. Now all of its deeds and the record of its life are inscribed in all the seeds that are to emerge next spring in another plot of soil. With the tongue of shape and form, the seeds make eloquent mention of the origins of those deeds, and spread out the page of deeds together with branch, twig, leaf, flower and fruit. He Who says: "When the pages are spread out" is the same Being That performs, before our eyes, these wise, preserving, nurturing and subtle acts.

Compare other matters with this by analogy, and deduce the truth if you have the capacity. Let us aid you with the following. The verse, When the sun is folded up, refers to a brilliant similitude and hints at its parallel:

First: God Almighty has cast aside the curtains of non-being, the aether and the heavens to bring forth from His treasury of mercy and show to the world a jewel-like lamp illumining the world - the sun. After closing the world, He will wrap that jewel again in His veils and remove it.

Second: The sun may be depicted as an official entrusted with the task of distributing the commodity of light over the globe, and causing it and darkness to succeed each other. Every evening the official is ordered to gather up the light. It may sometimes happen also that his trade may be slackened when he is hidden by the veil of a cloud. At other times it may be that the moon will also form a veil, and hinder his task. Now just as that official has his goods and ledgers gathered up for inspection, so too he will one day be relieved of his duties. Even if there be no cause for his dismissal, there are two dark spots on the sun - now small, but liable to grow - that one day will grow to the point that the sun will take back, by Dominical command, the light it now wraps around the head of the earth, and wrap it around its own head. It will then be told: "Come, your task on earth is now complete. Go to Hell, and burn there those who have worshipped you and thus mocked with faithlessness an obedient servant like you." With its own dark and scarred face, it will read out the decree, "When the sun is rolled up."

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Fifth Part

of the Addendum

The hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets, who are according to explicit prophetic tradition the choice part of humanity, have unanimously and with one accord reported, partly on the basis of direct vision and partly on the basis of absolute certainty, that the hereafter exists and that all beings will be taken to the hereafter as the Creator has firmly promised.

Similarly, the one hundred and twenty-four million saints who confirm the reports of the prophets through unveiling and witnessing, give testimony to the existence of the hereafter in the form of certain knowledge, and also bear testimony to the existence of the hereafter. All the Names of the All-Wise Maker of the cosmos also necessitate the existence of an eternal realm through the manifestations they display in this world.

The existence of the hereafter is furthermore necessitated by the infinite Eternal Power, the unlimited and exact Everlasting Wisdom, that revives every spring the countless dead trees scattered all over the earth with the command of 'Be!', and it is, thus making of them manifestations of "resurrection after death," and that resurrects three hundred thousand different species of the various groups of plant and nations of animals, as hundreds of thousands of specimens of the supreme resurrection.

The existence of the hereafter is also necessitated by an Eternal Mercy and Permanent Grace that sustains in wondrous and solicitous fashion all animate beings that stand in need of nurture, and that display each spring, in the briefest of periods, infinite different varieties of adornment and beauty. Finally, there is the self-evident proof and indication given by the intense, unshakeable, and permanent love of eternity, yearning for immortality and hope of permanence that are lodged in man, the most beloved creation of the Maker of the cosmos, and whose concern with all the beings in the cosmos is the greatest.

All of the foregoing so firmly prove that after this transient world there will be an eternal world, a hereafter, a realm of felicity, that we are compelled to accept the existence of a hereafter as indisputably as we accept the existence of this world.63

One of the most important lessons taught us by the All-Wise Qur'an, is, then, belief in the hereafter. This belief is so firm and contains within itself so powerful a hope and a consolation that if a person be assailed by old age hundred thousandfold, the consolation derived from this belief will be fully enough. Saying, "Praise be to God for the perfection of belief," we old people should rejoice in old age.

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1. Qur'an, 30:50.

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2. Indicates the cycle of a year. Indeed, every spring is a carload of provisions coming from the realm of the unseen.

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3. When a vast army in the present age receives the order, "take up your weapons and fix your bayonets," in accordance with the rules of war while on manoeuver, it comes to resemble a forest of upright oaks. Similarly, when the soldiers of a garrison are commanded on festive days to don their parade uniforms and pin on their medals, it will resemble from one end to the other a colourful and ornate garden, where all the flowers have blossomed. Conversely, when on the parade-ground of the world, the various and infinite species of the soldiery of the Pre-Eternal Monarch - angels, jinn, men, animals and even unfeeling plants - receive the order of Be! And it is in the struggle for life's preservation and the command, "take up your weapons and equipment, and prepare to defend yourselves," when they fix the minute bayonets that are the spiked trees and plants found throughout the world, - then they resemble a magnificent army advancing with bayonets fixed.

Similarly, each day and each week of the spring is like a festival for each class of the vegetable kingdom, and each class presents itself to the witnessing gaze of the Pre-Eternal Monarch with the jewelled decorations He has given them, as if it were on parade in order to display the fine gifts He has bestowed on them. It is as if all the plants and trees were heeding a dominical command, don the bejewelled garments produced by God's artistry, put on the decorations made by His Creative Power - flowers and fruit. The face of the earth then comes to represent a parade-ground on a splendid festive day, a magnificent parade brilliant with the uniforms and jewelled decorations of the soldiers.

Such wise and well-ordered arrangement and ornament demonstrates of a certainty, to all who are not blind, that they derive from the command of a monarch infinite in power and unlimited in wisdom.

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4. Some of the truths indicated in this parable have been set forth in the Seventh Truth. However, let us point out here that the figure of the "supreme photographer devoted to the service of the king" is an indication of the Preserved Tablet. The reality and existence of the Preserved Tablet has been proved in the Twenty-Sixth Word as follows: a little portfolio suggests the existence of a great ledger; a little document points to the existence of a great register; and little drops point to the existence of a great water tank. So too the retentive faculties of men, the fruits of trees, the seeds and kernels of fruit, being each like a little portfolio, a Preserved Tablet in miniature or a drop proceeding from the pen that inscribes the great Preserved Tablet - they point to, indicate and prove the existence of a Supreme Retentive Faculty, a great register, an exalted Preserved Tablet. Indeed, they demonstrate this visibly to the perceptive intellect.

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5. The meanings indicated in this Aspect can be found in the Eighth Truth. For example, by heads of offices we mean the Prophets and the Saints. As for the telephone, it is a link and relation with God that goes forth from the heart and is the mirror of revelation and the receptacle of inspiration. The heart is like the earpiece of that telephone.

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6. You will find what this Aspect alludes to in the Ninth Truth. The vernal equinox is equivalent to the beginning of spring. As for the green plain covered with flowers, this is the face of the earth in springtime. The changing scenes and spectacles are an allusion to the different groups of vernal beings, the classes of summer creation, and the sustenance for men and animals, that the All-Powerful and Glorious Maker, the All-Wise and Beauteous Creator, from the beginning of spring to the end of summer, brings forth in orderly succession, renews with the utmost compassion, and dispatches uninterruptedly.

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7. All licit nourishment is obtained not through the exercise of strength, but through the existence of need. The decisive proof of this is that powerless infants enjoy the finest of livelihoods, while strong wild beasts suffer from all kinds of deficiency, and that fish, for all their lack of intelligence, wax fat, while the cunning fox and monkey remain thin in their quest for livelihood. There is, therefore, an inverse relationship between sustenance on the one hand and strength and will power on the other. The more one relies on strength and will power the more difficult it will be to sustain one's livelihood.

8. The fact that a hungry lion will prefer its offspring to itself, and give to it a piece of meat it would otherwise have eaten; that the cowardly rabbit will attack a lion in order to protect its young; that the fig-tree contents itself with mud while giving pure milk to its offspring, the fruit - this shows to anyone not blind that they act in accordance with the commands of a Being infinitely merciful, generous and solicitous. Again, the fact that even unconscious plants and beasts function in the wisest and most conscious of fashions demostrates irrefutably that One Utterly Knowing and All- Wise has set them to work, and that they are acting in His name.

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9. The sentence "is it at all possible?" is indeed repeated many times, because it expresses a most significant mystery. Misguidance and lack of belief generally spring from the habit of imagining things to be impossible, far removed from the realm of reason, and therefore denying them. Now in this discussion of resurrection it has been decisively demonstrated that true impossiblity, absurdity and irrationality pertain to the path of misbelief and the road of misguidance, whereas true possibility, facility and rationality are characteristics of the path of faith and highway of Islam.

In short, the philosophers tend to unbelief on account of their regarding things as impossible, whereas the Tenth Word (discussion of resurrection), by means of the repeated sentence, "is it at all possible?" shows where impossibility lies, and thus deals them a blow in the mouth.

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10. The existence of a brightly designed and brilliantly adorned flower, a most artfully conceived and bejewelled fruit on a twig as thin as a wire, affixed to a dry, bonelike tree - this is without doubt a proclamation to all animate beings of the fine arts produced by a most skilled, wise and miraculous maker. This holds true not only of the vegetable kingdom, but also of the animal realm.

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11. There is a proverbial occurrence pertaining to this point. A celebrated beauty once expelled from her presence a common man who had become infatuated with her. In order to console himself, he said, "how ugly she is!", thus denying her beauty.

Once a bear stood beneath a vine trellis, and wished to eat the grapes. But he was unable to reach out for the grapes, or to climb up the trellis. So he said to himself, by way of consolation, "the grapes must be sour," and growling went on his way.

12. Although all beings that act as mirrors for God's beauty constantly vanish and disappear, those that succeed them display and manifest in their forms and features the same beauty and fairness. This shows that the beauty in question does not belong to them; the visible instances of beauty are rather the signs and indications of a transcendent and sacred beauty.

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13. He whose kingdom has lasted one thousand three hundred and fifty years, who has generally had more than three hundred and fifty million subjects, to whom his subjects daily renew their pledge of allegiance and to whose perfections they continually bear witness, whose commands are obeyed in perfect submission, whose spiritual hue has colored half of the globe and a fifth of mankind, who is the beloved of men's hearts and the educator of their spirits - such a being is without doubt the greatest servant of the Lord Who holds sway over the universe. Also, since most of the realms of beings applauded that being's function and duty through each bearing the fruit of his miracles, he is for sure the most beloved creature of the Fashioner of the cosmos. Similarly, the desire for perpetuity existing in all men by virtue of their very nature, a desire that lifts men from the lowest of the low to the highest of the high, is the greatest of all desires and petitions, fit to be presented to the Provider of all Needs only by the greatest among His servants.

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14. From the time that the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - first made his supplication down to the present, all the invocations upon him of peace and blessings made by his community are a kind of eternal amen to his prayer, a form of universal participation in it. Every invocation of peace and blessings upon him by every member of the Muslim community in the course of his prayer, as well as the prayer for him uttered after the second call to prayer according to the Shafi'i school - this too is a powerful and universal amen to his supplication for eternal bliss. So the eternity and everlasting bliss desired by all men with all of their strength, in accordance with their primordial disposition, is requested in the name of humanity by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the luminous segment of humanity says "amen" after him. Is it at all possible that such a prayer should not be accepted?

15. Indeed, it is not at all possible that the Master of this world, all of Whose doings are self-evidently inspired by consciousness, knowledge and wisdom, should be unaware and uninformed of the acts of the foremost among all of His creatures. Again, it is not at all possible that the All-Knowing Master should remain indifferent to the deeds and prayers of that foremost among His creatures, and deem them unimportant despite being aware of them. It is further impossible that the Powerful and Merciful Master of the World should not accept his prayers, having not remained indifferent to them. Yes, through the light of the Muhammedan Being the form of the world has changed. The true essence of men and all beings in the cosmos became apparent through that light; it became clear that they are each missives of the Eternally Besought One proclaiming the Divine Names, precious and profound beings with God-given functions and destined to manifest eternity. Were it not for that light, beings would be condemned to utter annihilation, they would be valueless, meaningless, useless, confused, the result of blind chance, sunk in the darkness of illusion. It is for this reason that just as men say "amen" to the prayer of the Prophet, so too all other beings, from the face of the earth up to God's throne, from the soil to the stars, all take pride in his light, and proclaim their connection with him. The very spirit of the worship of the Prophet is indeed none other than this prayer. Again, all the motions and workings of the cosmos are in their essence prayer. For example, the progress of a seed until it becomes a tree is a form of prayer to the Creator.

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16. To display wondrous samples of art, and examples of resurrection on the face of the earth that, compared with the hereafter is like a narrow page, to inscribe and include on that single page, in perfect order, all the different species of creation, that resemble three hundred thousand separate books, is certainly more difficult than building and creating the delicate and symmetrical structure of Paradise in the broad realm of eternity. Indeed, it may be said that to whatever degree Paradise is more elevated than the spring, to that degree the creation of the gardens of spring is more difficult and wondrous than the creation of Paradise.

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17. It is unanimously agreed the total reversal of truths is impossible. It is quite impossible that something should become the very opposite and reverse of itself, and impossible to the thousandth degree that something should retain its own nature, and yet at the same time become identical with its opposite. Thus infinite beauty cannot become ugliness, while yet remaining beauty, and, in our example, it is not possible that the beauty of Dominicality, a beauty perceptible and manifest in its existence, should retain its quiddity as the beauty of Dominicality, but become the very essence of ugliness. This would be the strangest of all impossible and false notions in the world.

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18. Now the life-span of everything is short, although its value is high and the subtleties of its artistry are most exalted and beautiful. This implies that everything is only a sample, a form of something else, that it has the function of drawing the gaze of the customer to the authentic and original object. This being the case, it may be said that the variegated adornments of this world are the samples of the bounties of Paradise, prepared by the Compassionate and Merciful One for His beloved servants.

19. There are numerous purposes for the existence of everything, and numerous results flow from its being. These are not restricted to this world and to the souls of men, as the people of misguidance imagine, being thus lost in vanity and purposelessness. On the contrary, the purposes for the existence and the results of the being of all things relate to the following three categories.

The first and the most exalted pertains to the Creator. It consists of presenting to the gaze of the Pre-Eternal Witness the bejewelled and miraculous wonders He has affixed to the object in question, as if in a military parade. To live for a fleeting second is enough to attain that glance. Indeed, the potentiality and intent for existence is enough, without ever emerging into life. This purpose is fully realized, for example, by delicate creatures that vanish swiftly and by seeds and kernels, each a work of art, that never come to life, that is, never bear fruit or flower. They all remain untouched by vanity and purposelessness. Thus the first purpose of all things is to proclaim, by means of their life and existence, the miracles of power and the traces of artistry of the Maker and display them to the gaze of the Glorious Monarch.

The second purpose of all existence and the result of all being pertains to conscious creation. Everything is like a truth-displaying missive, an artistic poem, or a wise word of the Glorious Maker, offered to the gaze of angels and jinn, of men and animals, and desiring to be read by them. It is an object for the contemplation and instruction of every conscious being that looks upon it.

The third purpose of all existence and result of all being pertains to the soul of the thing itself, and consists of such minor consequences as the experience of pleasure and joy, and living _____________________________________

with some degree of permanence and comfort. If we consider the purpose of a servant employed as a steersman on some royal ship, we see that only one hundredth of that purpose relates to the steersman himself - i.e., the wage he receives; ninty-nine hundredths of the purpose relate to the king who owns the ship. A similar relation exists between the purpose of a thing related to its own self and its worldly existence, and its purpose related to its Maker. In the light of this multiplicity of purposes we can now explain the ultimate compatibility between divine wisdom and economy on the one hand, and divine liberality and generosity - in fact, infinite generosity - on the other hand, even though they appear to be opposites and contradictory. In the individual purposes of things, liberality and generosity predominate, and the Name of Most Generous is manifested. From the point of view of individual purpose, fruits and grains are indeed beyond computation, and they demonstrate infinite generosity. But in universal purposes, wisdom predominates, and the name of All-Wise is manifested. However many purposes a tree has, each of its fruits contains that many purposes, and these can be divided into the three categories we have established. Their universal purposes demonstrate an infinite wisdom and economy. Infinite wisdom and infinite generosity and liberality are thus combined, despite their apparent opposition. For example, one of the purposes for raising an army is the maintenance of order. Whatever troops are available for the purpose will suffice or be more than enough. But the whole army will be barely enough for other purposes such as protecting the national frontiers and repelling enemies; its size will be in perfect balance with utter wisdom. Thus the wisdom of the state will be joined to its splendour, and it can be said that there is no excess in the army.

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20. Yes, it is fitting that the fruits, flowers and leaves on the tips and branches of a tree, proceeding from the treasuries of sustenance provided by divine mercy, should depart when they become old and their duties are at an end. Otherwise the gate will remain closed to those that come after them, and a barrier will be erected against the expansion of God's mercy and the services to be performed by their brethren (i.e., other members of the species). Moreover, with the passing of youth, they will become wretched and distraught. Spring is like a fruit-bearing tree that in turn is an indication of the plain of resurrection. Similarly, the world of humanity in every age is like a tree inviting contemplation, and the world as a whole is like an amazing tree the fruits of which are dispatched to the market of the hereafter.

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* See, the footnote to the Seventh Aspect above.

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21. The entirety of the past, extending from the present back to the beginning of creation, consists of occurrences. Every day, year and century that came into being is like a line, a page, a book, written by the pen of destiny; the hand of God's power has inscribed His miraculous signs there with the utmost wisdom and order.

Similarly, time from the present until resurrection, Paradise and eternity, consists entirely of contingencies. The past consists of occurrences, the future of contingencies. Now if these two chains of time be compared with each other, it will be seen to be true of a certainty that the Being That created yesterday and brought into being the creatures peculiar to it, is capable, too, of creating tomorrow together with its creatures. Again, there is no doubt that the beings and wonders of past time, that wondrous display, are the miraculous works of a Powerful and Glorious One. They bear decisive witness that that Powerful One is capable of creating all of the future and its contingencies, and manifesting all of its wonders.

The one who creates an apple must of a certainty be able to create all the apples in the world and to bring the vast spring into being. Conversely, the one who cannot create a spring cannot create a single apple either, for the apple is made at the same workbench. But the one who makes an apple can make the spring. Each apple is an example in miniature of a tree, even of a garden or a cosmos. The apple seed that carries within itself the life-story of the huge tree is, from the point of view of artistry, such a miracle that the one who creates it thus is incapable of nothing. So too, the one that creates today is able also to create the day of resurrection, and it is only the one capable of creating the spring that is able, too, to create resurrection. The one who affixes all the worlds of past time to the ribbon of time and displays them there in utmost wisdom and order, is without doubt capable of attaching other beings to the ribbon of the future and displaying them there. In several of the Words, particularly the Twenty-Second Word, we proved with utter certainty that: "the one who cannot create everything cannot create anything, and the one who can fashion one thing, can fashion everything. Also, if the creation of everything is entrusted to a single being, the creation of all things becomes as easy as the creation of a single thing; thus facility arises. If, on the contrary, it is entrusted to numerous causes, and ascribed to multiplicity, the creation of a single thing becomes as difficult as the creation of everything, and such difficulty arises as borders on impossibility."

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22. Like trees and the roots of grasses.

23. Like leaves and fruits.

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24. Qur'an, 30:50.

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25. Unbelief denounces creation for alleged worthlessness and meaninglessness. It is an insult to all of creation, a denial of the manifestation of the Divine Names in the mirror of beings. It is disrespect to all the Divine Names, and rejection of the witness borne to the Divine Unity by all beings. It is a denial of all creation. It corrupts man's potentialities in such a way that they are incapable of reform and unreceptive to good. Unbelief is also an act of utter injustice, a transgression against all of creation and the rights of God's Names. The preservation of those rights, as well as the unredeemable nature of the unbeliever's soul, make it necessary that unbelief should be unpardonable. The words, "to assign partners to God is verily a great transgression," (Qur'an, 31:13) express this meaning.

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26. There are two varieties of justice, one affirmative, the other negative. The positive variety consists in giving the deserving his right. This form of justice exists throughout the world in the most obvious fashion, because, as proven in the Third Truth, it observably bestows, in accordance with special balances and particular criteria, all the objects of desire requested by everything from its Glorious Creator with the tongue of innate capacity, the language of natural need, the speech of necessity, and all the requirements of life and existence. This variety of justice is, then, as certain as life and existence itself.

The other variety of justice, the negative, consists in chastising the unjust; it gives wrongdoers their due by way of requittal and punishment. This type of justice is not fully manifest in this world, even though there are countless signs and indications that permit us to sense its true nature. For example, all the chastising blows and punitive lashes that have descended on all rebellious peoples, from the Ad and Thamud to those of the present age, show definitely that an exalted justice dominates the world.

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27. If it be asked, "why do your parables consist chiefly of flowers, seeds and fruits," our answer is that they are the most wondrous, remarkable and delicate of the miracles of God's power. Moreover, since naturalists, philosophers and the people of misguidance have been unable to read the subtle script written upon them by the pen of destiny and power, they have choked on them, and fallen into the swamp of nature.

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28. Qur'an, 31:28.

29. Qur'an, 16:60.

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30. Qur'an, 6:149.

31. Qur'an, 30:50.

32. Qur'an, 36:78.

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33. Qur'an, 22:1-2.

34. Qur'an, 4:87.

35. Qur'an, 82:13-14.

36. Qur'an, 99:1-8.

37. Qur'an, 101:1-11.

38. Qur'an, 16:77.

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39. Qur'an, 30:17-27.

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40. Qur'an, 30:50.

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41. Qur'an, 81:1.

42. Qur'an, 22:1.

43. Qur'an, 99:1.

44. Qur'an, 82:1.

45. Qur'an, 84:1.

46. Qur'an, 78:1.

47. Qur'an, 88:1.

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48. Qur'an, 30:17-19.

49. The whole station has not yet been written and has been included here because of the relevance of the topic of life to resurrection. In addition, it contains a subtle and profound allusion to the pillar of Divine Determining at the end of the topic of life.

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50. Qur'an, 36:29,49,53; 38:15; 54:31.

51. Qur'an, 16:77.

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52. Qur'an, 16:77.

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53. Qur'an, 36:78.

54. Qur'an, 16:4.

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55. Qur'an, 36:80.

56. Qur'an, 2:117.

57. Qur'an, 36:78.

58. Qur'an, 36:83.

59. Qur'an, 10:56.

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60. Qur'an, 81:1.

61. Qur'an, 82:1.

62. Qur'an, 81:10.

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63. It can be realized from this comparison how easy it is to make a positive affirmation and how difficult to make a denial and negation. If, for example, someone should say, "there exists somewhere on this earth a wondrous garden containing canned milk," and someone else should say, "there is not," the affirmer need only point to the place of that garden or show some of its fruits in order to prove his claim. The denier, by contrast, will have to inspect and display the whole world in order to justify his negation. So too the testimony of two veracious witnesses will be enough to establish the existence of Paradise, quite apart from the hundreds of thousands of traces, fruits and indications demonstrated by those who assert its existence. Those who deny it must examine, explore and sift the infinite cosmos and infinite time before they can prove their denial and demonstrate the non-existence of Paradise. So, o aged brothers of mine, understand how firm is belief in the hereafter.The Thirty-Third Word

This Word consists of
Thirty-Three Windows
While being the Thirty-Third Letter,
this is also the Thirty-Third Word.


In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

We shall show them Our signs in the furthest horizons and in themselves, so that it will become clear to them that this [Qur'an] is indeed the Truth. Is it not enough that your Sustainer witnesses all things?1

Question: We would like a concise explanation of the ways man and the universe, that is, the microcosm and the macrocosm, point to the necessary existence and Unity of God and His Dominical attributes and functions, which the two parts of the above verse denote. For the unbelievers have gone too far, they are saying: "For how long shall we say: 'And He is powerful over all things', and have to raise our hands?"

Answer: The thirty-three Words that have been written form thirty-three drops from the ocean of this verse and from the seas of truth which flow from it. If you look at them, you will find your answer. What we say now is only a sort of hint to the sprinkling of a single drop from the ocean.

For example, if a wonderworker wants to build a mighty palace, he first of all sets the foundations in a wise and regular fashion, and plans them in a way suitable to their future purpose and results. Then he skilfully divides them into sections and apartments. Next, he orders and arranges the apartments, and decorates them with tapestries, then illuminates them with electric lights. Then, in order to renew his ingenious works and favours in that magnificent and adorned palace, he makes fresh creations and new changes and transformations in every level of it. And then he installs a telephone in each apartment connected to his own abode, and opens up a window from each, so that his may be seen.

In just the same way, And God's is the highest similitude,2 the Peerless Creator, Who is named with a thousand and one sacred Names such as All-Glorious Maker, All-Wise Sovereign, All-Just Arbiter, willed the creation of the palace of the universe and tree of the cosmos, which forms the macrocosm. He set the foundations of the palace, the tree in six days through the principles of wisdom and laws of His pre-eternal knowledge, then He divided and formed it into the higher and lower levels and branches through the principles of Divine Determining and Decree. Next, He adorned everything, each world in an appropriate manner, like the heavens with the stars and the earth with flowers. Then He manifested and made luminous His Names within the arena of those universal laws and general principles. And then in a special way sent to the assistance of individuals crying out at the constraint of those universal laws His Names of Most Merciful and All-Compassionate. That is to say, within those universal and general principles He has special favours, special succour, special manifestations, so that everything may seek help from Him and look to Him at every time for every need. Then from every apartment, every level, every world, every realm of being, every individual, from everything, He opened up windows which would show Himself, that is, make known His existence and Unity. He left a telephone in every heart.

For now we shall not attempt to discuss those innumerable windows, which is anyway beyond our power. Referring them to the all-encompassing knowledge of God, we shall only point out in a concise and brief manner Thirty-Three Windows-since it corresponds to the blessed number of the tesbihat following the prescribed prayers, and for a more detailed explanation of this, which forms the Thirty-Third Letter and Thirty-Third Word and consists of gleams from verses of the Qur'an, we refer readers to the rest of the Words.









First Window

If we look, we see that all things and especially living creatures have numerous different needs and numerous different wants. And those wants and needs are given them at the appropriate time, in unexpected ways, from places they do not know and their hands cannot reach; succour comes to them. But the power of these needy beings is not sufficient for even the smallest of those endless things they wish for; they cannot meet their needs. Consider yourself. Of how many things are you in need that your hands cannot reach, like your external and inner senses and their needs? Compare all other living creatures with yourself. See, just as singly they testify to the Necessary Existence and indicate to His Unity, so too in their totality do they show to the reason a Necessarily Existent One behind the veil of the Unseen, a Single One of Unity, among titles of Most Generous, All-Compassionate, Nurturer, and Disposer.

And so, O ignorant unbeliever and dissolute heedless one! With what can you explain this wise, percipient, compassionate activity? Deaf Nature? Blind force? Senseless chance? Can you explain it through impotent, lifeless causes?


Second Window

While in their existence and individuality, things are in a hesitant, bewildered, and shapeless form among innumerable possible ways, they are suddenly given a most well-ordered and wise aspect of individuality. For example, each human being has on his face characteristics which differentiate him from all his fellow humans, and it is equipped with utter wisdom with external and inner senses. This proves that the face is a most brilliant stamp of Divine Oneness. And just as each face testifies to the existence of an All-Wise Maker and points to His existence, so too the stamp which all faces display in their totality shows to the mind's eye that all things are a seal peculiar to their Creator.

O denier! To what workshop can you refer these stamps which can in no way be imitated, and the stamp of Eternal Besoughtedness which is on the totality?



Third Window

The army of all the various species of animals and plants on the face of the earth consists of four hundred thousand different groups.3 Their being managed and raised with perfect balance and order through their sustenance, papers, weapons, uniforms, instructions, and demobilizations, which are all different with nothing being forgotten and none of them being confused, is a stamp of the Single One of Unity as brilliant as the sun which can in no way be doubted. Who other than One possessing boundless power, all-encompassing knowledge, and infinite wisdom could interfere in this administration, which is wondrous to the utmost degree. For if one who cannot administer and raise all together these species and nations, which are one within the other, interferes with one of them, he will throw the lot into disorder. Whereas according to the meaning of,

So turn your vision again, do you see any flaw?4

there is no sign of confusion. That means not so much as a finger can interfere.


Fourth Window

This is the acceptability of the supplications offered through the tongue of latent ability by all seeds, and through the tongue of innate need by all animals, and through the tongue of exigency by the desperate.

Indeed, just as each of these innumerable supplications is observedly accepted and responded to, so too in a large measure do they in their entirety self-evidently indicate to and point to an All - Compassionate and Generous Creator, the Answerer of Prayer.


Fifth Window

We see that things and particularly living beings come into existence of a sudden, instantaneously. But, while things which appear suddenly out of a simple substance should be simple, formless, and without art, they are created with an art and beauty needing much skill, they are decorated with painstaking embroideries needing much time, and adorned with wonderful arts needing many tools. Thus, just as each of these instantaneous, wondrous arts and beautiful combinations indicates to the necessary existence of an All-Wise Creator and the Unity of His Dominicality, so too in their totality do they show in most brilliant fashion an infinitely Powerful, infinitely Wise Necessarily Existent One.

So now, O stupefied denier! Come on, with what can you explain this? With Nature, which is unconscious, impotent, and ignorant like you? Or do you want to make an infinite mistake and call that All-Holy Maker 'Nature', and on the pretext of naming Him that, attribute the miracles of His Power to it and perpetrate an impossibility compounded a thousand times over?


Sixth Window

In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of night and day and the boats which travel through the seas for the benefit of men, and in what God sends down from the sky as rain and with it raises to life the earth after its death and raises in it every sort of living being, and in the circulating of the winds and the clouds subjugated between the heavens and the earth, are signs for a people who thinks.5

Just as this verse points out the Divine existence and Unity, so too is it a most large window displaying a Greatest Name.

The gist of the verse is this: all the worlds in the higher and lower levels of the universe show with all-different tongues a single result, that is, the Dominicality of a single All-Wise Maker. It is as follows: just as in the heavens - and astronomy even admits to it - extremely well-ordered movements for extremely extensive results show the existence, Unity, and perfect Dominicality of an All-Powerful One of Glory, so too on the earth - and geography even testifies to it and acknowledges it - most orderly changes, like in the seasons, for most extensive benefits show the existence and Unity and perfect Dominicality of the same All-Powerful One of Glory.

Also, just as, being given their sustenance with perfect mercy, and being clothed in different forms with perfect wisdom, and being decked out with all sorts of senses through perfect Dominicality, each of all the animals on the land and in the sea again testifies to the existence of the All-Powerful One of Glory and indicates to His Unity, so too in their totality do they show on a vast scale the tremendousness of His Godhead and the perfection of His Dominicality. And so also, just as each of the well-ordered plants in gardens, and the finely adorned flowers which the plants display, and the well-proportioned fruits which the flowers display, and the embellished embroideries which the fruits display, testifies to the existence of the All-Wise Maker and points to His Unity, so too in their totality do they show most brilliantly the beauty of His Mercy and the perfection of His Dominicality.

Also, just as the drops of rain sent from the clouds in the sky charged with duties for important instances of wisdom and aims and necessary benefits and results again demonstrate to the number of their drops the the necessary existence and Unity and perfect Dominicality of the All-Wise Maker, so too do all the mountains on the earth and the storing-up in them of minerals with all their different properties for numerous different benefits show with the strength and firmness of a mountain the existence and Unity of the All-Wise Maker and the perfection of His Dominicality.

Also, just as, being adorned with numerous varieties of well-ordered flowers, the small hills in the plains and among the mountains each testifies to the necessary existence of an All-Wise Maker and points to His Unity, and all together show the majesty of His Sovereignty and the Perfection of His Dominicality, so too, do the great variety of the orderly shapes of all the leaves of the grasses and trees, and all their different stages and states and well-balanced and ecstatic movements again show the necessary existence and Unity and perfect Dominicality of the All-Wise Maker.

Also, just as the regular development at the time of their growth of each of all living bodies, and each being equipped with all sorts of organs and their being directed consciously towards numerous different fruits again testify to the necessary existence of the All-Wise Maker and indicate to His Unity, and in their totality show on a truly vast scale His all-encompassing Power, and all-embracing wisdom, and the beauty of His art, and the perfection of His Dominicality, so too souls and spirits being situated in all animal bodies, and their being armed in most orderly fashion with numerous sorts of systems and faculties, and their being sent on numerous different duties with perfect wisdom testify to the number of animals rather to the number of their faculties, to the necessary existence of the All-Wise Maker and point to His Unity, so too in their totality do they show most brilliantly the beauty of His Mercy and the perfection of His Dominicality.

Also, just as the inspirations from the Unseen imparted to all hearts, which make known to man every sort of science and knowledge and truth and teach the animals how to procure their needs, make known the existence of an All-Compassionate Sustainer and point to His Dominicality, so too do their external and inner senses, which like rays gathering immaterial flowers from the garden of the universe are each a key to a different world, demonstrate as clearly as the sun the necessary existence, Unity, Oneness, and perfect Dominicality of the All-Wise Maker, the All-Knowing Creator, the Most Compassionate Creator, the All-Generous Provider.

Thus, from the twelve windows, the twelve aspects, mentioned here a vast window opens which displays with a twelve-coloured light of truth the Oneness, Unity, and perfect Dominicality of Almighty God.

And so, O unhappy denier! With what can you close this window which is as broad as the globe of the earth, indeed, as its yearly orbit? And with what can you extinguish this source of light which shines like the sun? Behind which veil of heedlessness can you hide it?


Seventh Window

The perfect order of the works of art scattered over the face of the universe, and their perfect proportion and balance, and the perfection of their adornment, and the ease in their creation, and their resembling one another, and their exhibiting a single nature demonstrate on a vast scale the necessary existence and perfect Power and Unity of an All-Wise Maker.

And so too, just as the creation of innumerable, different, well-ordered complex beings from inanimate and simple elements again testifies, to the number of those composite beings, to the All-Wise Maker's necessary existence and points to His Unity, so also in their totality do they demonstrate in most brilliant fashion His Unity and the perfection of His Power.

And so too does the utmost distinguishing and differentiating of beings as they are renewed while being assembled and dissolved - that is, during what is called the composition of beings - amid the utmost degree of intermingling and confusion, for example the distinguishing of the shoots and growth of seeds and roots without confusing them in any way although they are all mixed up, and the mixed-up substances entering trees being separated to the leaves, flowers, and fruits, and the nutrients which enter the body in mixed-up form being differentiated and separated out with perfect wisdom and perfect balance for the cells of the body, again demonstrate the necessary existence and perfect Power and Unity of the Absolutely Wise One, the Absolutely Knowing One, the Absolutely Powerful One.

And so too does the making of the world of minute particles into a boundless, broad arable field and every instant sowing and harvesting it and obtaining the fresh crops of different universes from it, and those inanimate, impotent, ignorant particles being made to perform innumerable orderly duties most consciously, wisely, and capably again show the necessary existence of the All-Powerful One of Glory and Maker of Perfection, and His perfect Power and the grandeur of His Dominicality and His Unity and the perfection of His Dominicality.

Thus a large window is opened onto knowledge of God through these four ways, and they display the All-Wise Maker to the mind on a large scale.

And now you unhappy heedless one! If you do not want to see Him and learn of Him in this way, divest yourself of your reason, become an animal, and thus be saved!


Eighth Window

The testimony of all the prophets (Upon whom be peace), who are those with luminous spirits among mankind, relying on their manifest and evident miracles, and the testimony of all the saints, who with their luminous hearts are the spiritual poles, relying on their illuminations and wonder-working, and testimony of all the purified scholars, who possess luminous minds, relying on their researches and verifications, to the necessary existence, Unity, and perfect Dominicality of the Single One of Unity, the Necessary Existent, the Creator of All Things form a truly vast and luminous window.

Oh you unfortunate denier! In whom do you place your trust so that you do not heed these? Or by closing your eyes in the daytime do you imagine the world to be plunged into night?


Ninth Window

The universal worship in the cosmos self-evidently demonstrates an Absolute Object of Worship. Indeed, the perfect obedience and worship of all angels and spirit beings, which is established by the testimony of those who have penetrated to the spirit world and the inner dimension of things and have met with the angels and spirit beings, and of all living beings self-evidently performing their duties in perfect order and in a worshipful manner, and of all inanimate things self-evidently carrying out their duties with perfect submission and in a worshipful manner all demonstrate the necessary existence and Unity of a True Object of Worship.

And so too the true knowledge of the knowing, which bears the power of consensus, and the fruitful thanks of all those who offer thanks, and the radiant glorification of all those who recite God's Names, and the praises, which increase bounty, of all those recite God's praises, and all the demonstrative proofs and descriptions of Divine Unity of all those who acknowledge it, and the true love and passion of all lovers of God, and the true will and desires of those who seek Him, and the earnest searching and penitence of all those who turn to Him demonstrate the necessary existence and perfect Dominicality and Unity of that Pre-Eternal All-Worshipped One, The One Who is Known, Mentioned, Thanked, Praised, One, Beloved, Desired, and Sought.

And so too all the acceptable worship of perfected human beings and the spiritual radiance and supplications, visions and illuminations resulting from their acceptable worship again demonstrate the necessary existence and Unity and perfect Dominicality of that Eternal Being, the Enduring Object of Worship. Thus, these three aspects open up a broad, light-giving window onto Divine Unity.


Tenth Window

And He sends down water from the sky and brings forth with it fruits for your sustenance; and He has made subject to you the ships, that they sail through the sea by His command; and He has made the rivers subject to you; * And He has made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses; and He has made subject to you the night and the day. * And He gives you of all that you ask Him. But if you count God's bounties, you will never be able to number them.6

The mutual assistance and solidarity of beings in the universe and the fact that they respond to one another show that all creatures are trained by a single Instructor, are organized by a single Director, are under the jurisdiction of a single Disposer, are the servants of a single Lord. For through an all-embracing law of mutual assistance, the sun cooks the necessities for the lives of living beings on the earth through a Dominical command, and the moon acts as a calendar, and light, air, water, and sustenance hasten to the assistance of living beings, and plants hasten to the assistance of animals, and animals hasten to the assistance of human beings, and the members of the body hasten to assist one another, and particles of food even hasten to the assistance of the cells of the body. This most wise and generous mutual assistance of these beings, and their responding to one another's needs and their supporting and strengthening one another under a law of generosity, a law of compassion, a law of mercy show clearly and self-evidently that they are the servants, officials, and creatures of a sole, unique Single One of Unity, a Peerless Eternally Besought One, an Absolutely Powerful, Absolutely Knowing, Absolutely Compassionate, Absolutely Generous Necessarily Existent One.

And so, O wretched bankrupt philosophy! What do you say to this mighty window? Can your chance interfere in this?


Eleventh Window

For indeed in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest.7

Through knowing a single Creator, all spirits and hearts are delivered from the distress and confusion arising from misguidance, and from the spiritual pains arising from distress. They are saved by attributing all beings to a single Maker. They find assurance through the remembrance of a single God. For, as is proved decisively in the Twenty-Second Word, if all beings are not attributed to a single being, it becomes necessary to ascribe a single thing to innumerable causes, and then the existence of a single thing becomes as difficult as all beings. For if attributed to God, innumerable things are ascribed to a single being, and if they are not attributed to Him, it becomes necessary to attribute everything to innumerable causes. Then a single fruit becomes as difficult as the universe, indeed, more difficult. For just as if the management of one soldier is given to a hundred different people, a hundred difficulties arise, and if a hundred soldiers are given to the direction of one officer, they are as easy to manage as a single soldier, so too the coinciding of numerous different causes in the creation of a single thing is difficult to the hundredth degree. And if the creation of numerous things is given to a single being, it becomes easy to the hundredth degree.

Thus, it is only recognizing the Unity of the Creator and knowledge of God that delivers man from the boundless distress arising from the curiosity and desire to search for the truth inherent in his nature. Since there are endless difficulties and pains in unbelief and associating partners with God, that way is certainly impossible and contains no truth. While since suitably to the ease, multiplicity, and fine art in the creation of beings, there is a boundless ease in affirming Divine Unity, that way is surely necessary and the truth.

And so O you miserable people of misguidance! See how dark and full of pain is the way of misguidance! What is it that makes you take it? And see how easy and pleasant is the way of belief and affirming Divine Unity! Take that way and be delivered!

Twelfth Window

Glorify the Name of your Sustainer, the All-Highest, * Who has created, and given order and proportion, * And Who has determined [the nature of all things] and guided [them towards their fulfilment].8

According to the meaning of this verse, all things, and especially living creatures, have been given a form and well-ordered proportions in accordance with wisdom as though they have emerged from a mould. And there are intricate extremities in those measured proportions for benefits and various uses. And the form of their clothes and their proportions, which they change throughout the periods of their lives, are each immaterial and well-ordered and measured, and are composed of the appointed events of their lives again in a fashion suitable to wisdom and benefits. This shows clearly that those innumerable creatures, whose forms and proportions have been planned in the sphere of determining of an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Wise One of Perfection, and who have been given forms fashioned in the workshop of Divine Power, point to that Being's necessary existence and testify to His Unity and perfect Power with endless tongues. Look at your own body and its members and the fruits of its intricate and complex places! See the perfect Power within the perfect wisdom!


Thirteenth Window

According to the meaning of:

And there is nothing but extols His limitless glory and praise,9

everything recalls and declares to be holy its Creator through its own particular tongue. Indeed, the glorifications which all beings utter through the tongues of utterance and disposition demonstrate the existence of a single Most Holy Being. The testimony of innate disposition may not be rejected. Especially if the evidence it presents has many aspects, it may not induce doubt. Look! Each of the well-ordered forms of these beings, which comprise endless testimony through the manner of their creation and bear witness in innumerable ways through the tongue of disposition and look to a single centre like concentric circles, is a tongue. And their well-proportioned and balanced assemblages are each testifying tongues. And their perfect lives are each glorifying tongues. Thus, as is proved in the Twenty-Fourth Word, their glorifications, benedictions, and testifying to a single Most Holy Being through all these tongues demonstrate a Necessarily Existent One as light shows the sun, and point to the perfection of His Godhead.


Fourteenth Window

Say: who is it in whose hands is the governance of all things?10 * And there is nothing but its treasuries are with Us.11 * There is not a moving creature but He has grasp of its forelock.12 * Indeed my Sustainer watches over and records all things.13

According to the meaning of these verses, all things are in need of a single All-Glorious Creator in everything, in every matter and circumstance. Indeed, we look at the beings in the universe and we see that there is the manifestation of an absolute force within an absolute weakness. And the traces of an absolute power are apparent within an absolute impotence. Like, for example, the wonderful states and stages plants display when the life-force awakens in their seeds and roots. And there is the manifestation of an absolute wealth within an absolute poverty and dryness. Like the poverty of trees and the soil in winter and their glittering wealth and riches in the spring. And the sprinklings of an absolute life are apparent within an absolute lifelessness. Like the transformation of the elements into living matter.

Also, there is the manifestation of an all-encompassing consciousness with an absolute ignorance. Like everything, from minute particles to the stars, acting consciously and conforming to the order of the universe and to the demands of wisdom and the things benefiting life. Thus, this power within impotence, and strength within weakness, and wealth and riches within poverty, and life and consciousness within lifelessness and ignorance necessarily and self-evidently open windows on every side onto the necessary existence and Unity of One Possessing Absolute Power and Absolute Strength, a Possessor of Absolute Riches, an Absolutely Knowing, All-Living and Self-Sufficient One. In their totality they point to a luminous highway on a vast scale.

And so, O you heedless one who has fallen into the swamp of Nature! If you do not quit Nature and recognize Divine Power, you have to accept that in everything, in every minute particle even, reside an infinite force and power, a boundless wisdom and skill, and the ability to see, know, and administer most other beings.

Fifteenth Window

According to the meaning of the verse:

Who has created everything in the best way,14

everything is cut out according to its innate abilities with perfect measure and order, and put together with the finest art, in the shortest way, the best form, the lightest manner, and most practicable shape. Look at the clothes of birds, for example, and the easy way they ruffle up their feathers and all the time use them. Also, things are given bodies and dressed in forms in a wise manner with no waste and nothing in vain; they testify to their number to the necessary existence of an All-Wise Maker and point to that Possessor of Absolute Power and Knowledge.


Sixteenth Window

The order and ordering in the creation and disposal of creatures, which are renewed season by season on the earth, show clearly a universal wisdom. Since an attribute cannot be without the one it qualifies, this universal wisdom necessarily shows an All-Wise One. And the wonderful adornment within the veil of wisdom, self-evidently shows a perfect beneficence. And that perfect beneficence necessarily points to a gracious, All-Generous Creator. And the all-encompassing benevolence and bestowal within the veil of beneficence show self-evidently an all-embracing mercy. And that all-embracing mercy shows necessarily an All-Merciful and All-Compassionate One. And the sustenance and foods of all living creatures above the veil of mercy, all perfectly appropriate for their needs, show clearly a sustaining Providence and a compassionate Dominicality. And that sustaining and administering necessarily point to an All-Generous Provider.

Yes, each of the creatures on the face of the earth, thus raised with perfect wisdom, adorned with perfect beneficence, bestowed upon with perfect mercy, and nurtured with perfect compassion, testifies to the necessary existence of an All-Wise, Munificent, Compassionate, Providing Maker, and points to His Unity.

So also look at and consider all together the universal wisdom which is apparent on the face of the earth as a whole and is to be seen in its totality and shows clearly purpose and will; and the perfect beneficence embracing all creatures, which comprises the wisdom; and the all-encompassing mercy, which comprises the beneficence and wisdom and includes all the beings of the earth; and the most generous sustaining and nurturing, which comprises the mercy and wisdom and beneficence and embraces all living creatures. Just as the seven colours form light, and the light, which illuminates the face of the earth, shows without doubt the sun, so too that beneficence within wisdom, and mercy within beneficence, and sustaining and nurturing within mercy show brilliantly on a large scale and at a high degree the Unity and perfect Dominicality of an utterly Wise, Generous, Compassionate, Providing Necessarily Existent One.

And so, O you stupefied and heedless denier! With what can you explain this wise, generous, compassionate, providential sustaining, this strange, wonderful, miraculous state of affairs which is before your eyes? With chance and coincidence, which are aimless like you? With force, which is blind like your heart? With Nature, which is deaf like your head? With causes which are impotent, lifeless, and ignorant like you? Or do you want to give the name of 'Nature', which is utterly impotent, ignorant, deaf, blind, contingent, and wretched, to the All-Glorious One, Who is utterly holy, pure, exalted, and free of all defect and absolutely Powerful, Knowing, Hearing, and Seeing, and thus perpetrate an infinite error? So with what force can you extinguish this truth brilliant as the sun? Under which veil of heedlessness can you conceal it?


Seventeenth Window

Indeed in the heavens and earth are signs for those who believe.15

If we observe the face of the earth in the summer, we see that an absolute munificence and generosity, which necessitates confusion and disarrangement, is to be seen within a total harmony and order. Look at all the plants which adorn the face of the earth!

And the utter speed in the creation of things, which necessitates imbalance and disorder, is apparent within a perfect equilibrium. Look at all the fruits which decorate the face of the earth!

And an absolute multiplicity, which necessitates unimportance, indeed, ugliness, is apparent within a perfect beauty of art. Look at all the flowers which gild the face of the earth!

And the absolute ease in the creation of things, which necessitates lack of art and simplicity, is to be seen within an infinite art and skill and attention. Look carefully at all seeds, which are like the tiny containers and programmes of the members of plants and trees and the small cases containing their life-histories!

And the great distances, which necessitate difference and diversity, appear within an correspondence and conformity. Look at all the varieties of cereal grains sown in every part of the earth!

And the total intermingling, which necessitates confusion and muddle, is on the contrary to be seen within a perfect differentiation and separation. Consider the perfect differentiation of seeds when they sprout, despite being cast into the earth all mixed-up together and all resembling one another with regard to their substance, and the various substances which enter trees being separated out perfectly for the leaves, flowers, and fruits, and the foods which enter the stomach all mixed-up together being separated out perfectly according to the various members and cells. See the perfect power within the perfect wisdom!

And the great abundance and infinite profusion, which necessitate unimportance and worthlessness, are to be seen as most valuable and expensive in regard to the creatures and art on the face of the earth. Within these innumerable wonders of art, consider only the varieties of mulberry, those sweets of Divine Power, on the table of the All-Merciful One on the face of the earth! See them within the perfect mercy, the perfect art!

And so, just as the day shows the light, and the light the sun, the great value together with the utter profusion; and the boundless intermingling and intermixing together with the utmost differentiation and separation within the utter profusion; and the great distance together with the utmost conformity and resemblance within the limitless differentiation and separation; and the infinite ease and facility together with the infinite care in the making within the utmost resemblance; and the absolute speed and rapidity together with the total equilibrium and balance and lack of waste within the most beautiful making; and the infinite abundance and multiplicity together with the highest degree of beauty of art within utter lack of waste; and the utmost munificence together with absolute order within the highest degree of beauty of art, all testify to the necessary existence, perfect power, beautiful Dominicality, and Unity and Oneness of an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Wise One of Perfection, an All-Compassionate and Beauteous One. They demonstrate the meaning of the verse:

His are the Most Beautiful Names.16

So now, O you wretched, ignorant, heedless, obstinate, idle one! With what can you interpret this mighty truth? With what can you explain this infinitely miraculous and wonderful state of affairs? To what can you attribute these truly extraordinary arts? What veil of heedlessness can you draw across this window as broad as the earth and so close it? Where is your chance and coincidence, your unconscious companion on which you rely and call 'Nature', your friend and support in misguidance? It is totally impossible for chance and coincidence to interfere in these matters, isn't it? And to attribute to 'Nature' one thousandth of them is impossible a thousand times over, isn't it?

Or does lifeless, impotent Nature have immaterial machines and printing presses within each single thing, made from each, and to the number of each?


Eighteenth Window

Do they not consider the government of the heavens and the earth? 17

Consider this comparison which is explained in the Twenty-Second Word: A fine, well-ordered, well-crafted work like a palace self-evidently points to a well-ordered act. That is to say, a building indicates to the act of building. And a fine, well-ordered act necessarily points to a proficient agent, a skilful master, a builder. And the titles of proficient master and builder point self-evidently to a perfect attribute, that is, to a faculty for the craft. And that perfect attribute and that perfect faculty for the craft self-evidently indicate to the existence of a perfect innate ability. And a perfect innate ability indicate to the existence of an exalted spirit and elevated essence.

In just the same way, the ever-renewed works which fill the face of the earth, indeed the universe, show clearly acts of the utmost perfection. And these acts, which are in the sphere of total order and wisdom, point clearly to an agent whose titles and Names are perfect. For it is clearly obvious that well-ordered, wise acts cannot be without the one who performs them. And titles of the utmost perfection point to the utterly perfect attributes of that agent. For just as according to the rules of grammar, the active particle is formed from the infinitive [that is, what is called 'the root' in Arabic grammar], so also the source and roots of nouns, names and titles are attributes. And attributes at the utmost degree of perfection point indubitably to utterly perfect essential qualities. And those perfect essential qualities - which we are unable to describe - point most certainly to an essence which is at the utmost peak of perfection.

Thus, since in every part of the world all the works of art and creatures are each a perfect work, each testifies to an act, and that act testifies to a Name, and that Name to an attribute, and that attribute to a quality, and that quality to the Essence. Thus, just as to the number of creatures they each testify to the necessary existence of the All-Glorious Maker and indicate to His Oneness, so too altogether they form an ascension in Divine knowledge as strong as the chains of beings. They form a proof of reality in continuous sequence into which doubt can in no way enter.

So now, O wretched, heedless denier! With what can you smash this proof which is as strong as the chain of the universe? With what can you close this latticed window with its innumerable spaces which show rays of truth to the number of these creatures? Which veil of heedlessness can you draw over it?


Nineteenth Window

According to the meaning of the verse:

The seven heavens and the earth and all within them extol His limitless glory,and there is nothing but it extols His limitless glory and praise,18

the All-Glorious Maker has attached so many meanings and instances of wisdom to the heavenly bodies it is as if, in order to express His Glory and Beauty, He has adorned the heavens with the words of the suns, moons and stars. And to the beings in the atmosphere also He has attached instances of wisdom and meanings and aims, as if to make it speak through the words of the thunder, lightening, and drops of rain, and give instruction in the perfection of His wisdom and beauty of His mercy.

And just as He causes the head of the earth to speak with its meaningful words known as animals and plants and displays the perfections of His art to the universe, so too He makes speak the plants and trees, each a word of that head, through the words of their leaves, flowers, and fruits and again proclaims the perfection of His art and beauty of His mercy. And their flowers and fruits, too, He makes speak, through the words of their seeds, and gives instruction to the aware and conscious in the subtleties of His art and the perfection of His Dominicality. And so, out of these innumerable words of glorification, we shall lend our ears and listen to the manner of expression of only a single shoot and a single flower, and learn in what way they testify.

Indeed, all plants and all trees describe their Maker with numerous tongues in such a way that they leave those who study them in amazement, causing them to exclaim: "Glory be to God! How wonderfully they bear witness to Him!"

Yes, the glorification of all plants at the time their flowers open, and the moment they produce new shoots, and when they offer their smiling words is as beautiful and clear as themselves. For the order demonstrating wisdom through the beautiful mouth of each flower and the tongue of its well-ordered shoots and the words of its well-measured seeds is observedly within a balance which demonstrates knowledge. And the balance is within an embroidery of art which demonstrates skill and craft. And the embroidery of art is within an adornment which demonstrates favour and munificence. And the adornment is within subtle scents which demonstrate mercy and bestowal. And these meaningful qualities one within the other form such a tongue of testimony that it both describes the All-Beauteous Maker through His Names, and portrays Him through His attributes, and expounds the manifestation of His Names, and expresses His making Himself loved and known.

And so, if you hear such testimony from a single flower, when you listen to all the flowers in the Dominical gardens on the face of the earth and hear with what elevated strength they proclaim the necessary existence and Unity of the All-Glorious Maker, will your doubts and suspicions and heedlessness be able to persist? If they do persist, should it be said of you that you are a conscious human being?

Come, now look carefully at a tree! See its delicate mouth within the orderly emergence of the leaves in spring, and the blossoms opening in a measured manner, and the fruits swelling with wisdom and mercy and dancing at the blowing of the breeze in the hands of the branches like innocent children. See the just balance within the wise order expressed through the tongue of the leaves becoming green at a generous hand, through that of the flowers smiling with the joy of a favour received, and through the words of the fruits laughing through a manifestation of mercy. See the careful arts and embroideries within the balance demonstrating justice; and the mercy within the skilful embroideries and adornment; and the differing sweet tastes and delightful scents, which indicate to mercy and bestowal; and the seeds, each of which is a miracle of Power within the agreeable tastes: all these point in most clear fashion to the necessary existence and Unity of an All-Wise, Generous, Compassionate, Beneficent, Bountiful Maker, a Bestower of Beauty and Favours, to the beauty of His mercy and perfection of His Dominicality. Thus, if you can listen at the same time to the tongues of disposition of all the trees on the earth, you will see and understand what exquisite jewels are to be found in the treasury of the verse:

All that is in the heavens and on the earth extols God's limitless glory.19

And so, O you unhappy heedless one who supposes himself to be free through his ingratitude! If the All-Generous One of Beauty, Who makes Himself known to you and loved by you through these innumerable tongues had not wanted you to know Him, He would have silenced them. Since they have not been silenced, they should be heeded. You cannot be saved by closing your ears in heedlessness. For the universe does not fall silent at you stopping up your ears, the beings within it will not be silent, the witnesses to Divine Unity will not hold their tongues. And for sure, they will condemn you...


Twentieth Window20

So glory be to Him in Whose hands is the dominion of all things.21 * And there is nothing but its treasuries are with Us; but We only send it down in a measure defined. * And We send forth the winds to fertilize [the plants], and We send down rain from the skies providing you with water therewith, and you are not the keepers of its stores.22

Just as perfect wisdom and beauty of art are apparent in particulars and results and in details, so too do the universal elements and large creatures take up their positions in accordance with wisdom and art, despite their apparently being mixed up together by chance without order. Thus, as its other wise duties show, light shines in order to proclaim and make known the Divine creatures on the face of the earth, with the permission of its Sustainer. This means that light is employed by a Wise Maker; by means of it, He makes manifest His antique works of art in the exhibitions of the market of this world.

Now consider the winds! According to the testimony of their other wise, generous benefits and duties, they are hastening to extremely numerous and important tasks. It means that that movement in waves is a being employed, a being despatched, a being utilized by an All-Wise Maker; it is a working expeditiously to carry out speedily the commands of its Sustainer.

Now consider the springs, the streams, and the rivers! Their welling-up out of the ground and out of mountains is not by chance. For it is demonstrated by the testimony of their benefits and fruits, the works of Divine Mercy, and by the statement of their being stored up in mountains with the balance of wisdom in proportion to need, that they are subjugated and stored up by an All-Wise Sustainer, and that their flowing forth is their conforming exuberantly to His command.

Now consider all the varieties of stones and jewels and minerals in the earth! Their decorations and beneficial properties, the wise benefits connected to them, and their being prepared in a manner appropriate to human and animal needs and vital necessities all show that they are made in that way through the decoration, arrangement, planning, and forming of an All-Wise Maker.

Now consider the flowers and fruits! Their smiles, tastes, beauties, embroideries, and scents are each like an invitation to and menu for the table of a Most Munificent Maker, an All-Compassionate Bestower of Bounties; they are given as various menus and invitations to each species of beings through their different colours, scents, and tastes.

Now consider the birds! A certain indication that their twittering and chirruping is an All-Wise Maker's causing them to speak is the astonishing way in which they express their feelings to one another with those sounds, and state their intentions.

Now consider the clouds! A definite indication that the pattering of the rain is not a meaningless sound and that the crashing of thunder and lightening is not a futile din is that those strange beings are created in empty space. Also drops of rain like the water of life are milked from the clouds, suckling the living creatures on the earth so needy and longing for them. These facts show that the pattering and crashing are most meaningful and full of wisdom. For at the command of a Most Generous Sustainer, the rain calls out to those longing for it: "Good news! We are coming!" They express this meaning.

Now look at the sky and consider carefully only the moon out of all the innumerable bodies in it! That its motion is at the command of an All-Powerful and Wise One is demonstrated by the important instances of wisdom connected to it and concerning the earth. Since we have explained these in other places in the Risale-i Nur, we cut this short here.

Thus, the universal elements we have enumerated from the light to the moon open in large measure a most broad window. They proclaim and show the Unity of a Necessarily Existent One, and the perfection of His Power, and grandeur of His sovereignty.

And so O heedless one! If you are able to silence this voice like the crashing of thunder and extinguish this light brilliant as the sun, forget God! Otherwise come to your senses! Say, All Glory be unto You! And,

The seven heavens and the earth and all within them extol His limitless glory! 23


Twenty-First Window

And the sun runs its course to a place appointed, that is the determining of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.24

The universe's lamp, the sun, forms a window onto the existence and Unity of the universe's Maker that is as brilliant and luminous as the sun itself. Indeed, despite their great differences with regard to size, position, and speed, the twelve planets including our globe known as the solar system are in motion and revolve with perfect order and wisdom and perfect balance without a second's confusion, and are bound to the sun through a Divine law known as gravity, that is, they follow their leader as though in prayer. This demonstrates on a vast scale the tremendousness of Divine Power and the Unity of their Sustainer. Those lifeless bodies, those vast unconscious masses, are rotated and employed within the utmost order and wise balance, in various forms and over varying distances and in varying motions, proving the degree of the power and the wisdom; you compare for yourself. If chance were to interfere the tiniest amount in this vast and complex matter, it would cause an explosion so great it would scatter the universe. If it were to arrest the motion of one of them for a minute, it would cause it to leave its orbit and open the possibility of its colliding with another planet. You can understand how awesome would be the collision of bodies thousands of times larger than the earth.

Now we shall refer to the all-encompassing knowledge of God the wonders of the solar system, that is, the twelve planets which are the sun's followers and fruits, and consider only our own planet, the earth, which is here before our eyes. We see that our planet is made to travel on a long journey around the sun by a Dominical command as a most important duty - as is described in the Third Letter - in a way that demonstrates the grandeur of Dominical majesty and the loftiness of the sovereignty of the Godhead and the perfection of His Mercy and Wisdom. It has been given the form of a Dominical ship filled with the wonders of Divine art and of a travelling dwelling like an exhibition, for God's conscious servants to gaze on. And the moon has been attached to it with precise reckoning for mighty instances of wisdom, like being an hour-hand for telling the time. The moon too has been given various mansions through which to journey. Thus, these aspects of this blessed planet of ours prove the necessary existence and Unity of a Possessor of Absolute Power with a testimony as powerful as the globe of the earth itself. You can make an analogy with the rest of the solar system from this.

Furthermore, the sun is made to turn on its own axis like a spinning-wheel, in order to wind into a ball the immaterial threads called gravity and tie the planets with them and set them in order. So too is it impelled together with its planets at a speed of cutting five hours' distance a second towards, according to one estimate, the Constellation of Hercules, or towards the 'Sun of Suns'. This most certainly occurs through the power and at the command of the All-Glorious One, the Monarch of Pre-Eternity and Post-Eternity. It is as though He makes the solar system perform these manoeuvres like a platoon of soldiers under orders, and so demonstrates the majesty of His Dominicality.

And so, O you astronomers! What chance can interfere in these matters? The hands of what causes can reach them? What force can draw close to this? Come on, you say! Would an All-Glorious Monarch such as this display impotence and permit others to have a role in his sovereignty? Would He give to other hands living creatures in particular, which are the fruit, result, aim, and essence of the universe? Would He permit another to interfere? And especially man, would He leave him to his own devices, the most comprehensive of those fruits, the most perfect of the results, His vicegerent on earth, and mirror-like guest? Would He refer him to Nature and chance and reduce the majesty of His sovereignty to nothing? Reduce to nothing His perfect wisdom?


Twenty-Second Window

Have We not made the earth a cradle, * And the mountains as pegs, * And created you as pairs? 25 * So behold the signs of God's Mercy, how He raises to life the earth after its death.26

The globe of the earth is a head with a hundred thousand mouths. In each mouth are a hundred thousand tongues. On each tongue are a hundred thousand proofs, each one of which testifies in numerous ways to the necessary existence, Unity, sacred attributes, and Most Beautiful Names of an All-Glorious One.

Indeed, we consider the first creation of the earth and we see that rock was created from matter in a fluid state, and that soil was created from rock. If that matter had remained fluid, it would not have been habitable, and if after becoming rock, the fluid had become hard as iron, it would not have suitable for use. So what gave it its state was surely the wisdom of an All-Wise Maker Who saw the needs of the earth's inhabitants. Then the layer of soil was thrown over the pegs of mountains so that the earthquakes arising from internal upheavals could breathe through the mountains and they would not cause the earth to be shaken out of its motion and duties, and so that the mountains would preserve the earth from the encroachment of the sea, and each would be storehouse for the vital necessities of living beings, and would purify the air from noxious gases so allowing living beings to breathe, and so that they would accumulate and hold water reserves, and would be a source and mine for the minerals necessary for living creatures.

Thus, this situation testifies most clearly and powerfully to the necessary existence and Unity of a Possessor of Absolute Power, an All-Wise and Compassionate One.

Oh geographers! With what can you explain this? What chance could make this Dominical ship full of these wonderful creatures into an exhibition of marvels, and spin it at a speed of covering the distance of twenty-four thousand years in one year while not allowing a single of the objects arranged on the face of it to fall off?

Consider also the strange arts on the face of the earth. How wisely the elements are employed in their functions! How well they attend to the guests of the Most Merciful One on the earth through the command of an All-Wise and Powerful One, and hasten to serve them!

Also look at these embroidered lines within strange and wondrous arts on face of the earth, multicolored and full of strange wisdom! See how the brooks and streams, seas and rivers, mountains and hills have each been made as dwellings and means of transport suitable for His various creatures and servants. See how then with perfect wisdom and order He has filled them with hundreds of thousands of varieties of plants and animals, and given them life and made them rejoice, and how regularly minute by minute He discharges the creatures and empties those dwellings with death, and then again in orderly fashion refills them in the form of 'resurrection after death'. This testifies with hundreds of thousands of tongues to the necessary existence and Unity of an All-Powerful One of Glory, an All-Wise One of Perfection.

In Short: The earth, the face of which is an exhibition of marvels of art, a display of wonders of creation, a place of passage for the caravans of beings, and a mosque and dwelling for the ranks of worshippers, is like the heart of all the universe; it thus displays the light of Divine Unity to the same degree as the universe.

And so, O geographer! If the head of the earth has a hundred thousand mouths and with the hundred thousand tongues in each it makes known God, and still you do not recognize Him and plunge your head in the swamp of Nature, then ponder over the greatness of your fault! Know what a grievous punishment it makes you deserve! Come to your senses and extract your head from the swamp! Say, I believe in God in Whose hand is the sovereignty of all things.


Twenty-Third Window

Who creates death and life.27

Life is the most luminous, the most beautiful of the miracles of Dominical Power. It is the most powerful and most brilliant of the proofs of Divine Unity. It is the most comprehensive and most shining of the mirrors displaying the manifestations of the Eternally Besought One. Yes, on its own, life makes known a Living and Self-Subsistent One together with all his Names and acts. For life is a light, a medicament, like a potion blended from numerous attributes. Just as the seven colours are combined in light, and various drugs are blended together in a medicament, so also life is a reality made of numerous attributes. Some of the attributes in its reality expand by means of the senses; they unfold, and are differentiated. However the greater part make themselves perceived in the form of the emotions; they make themselves known by welling up out of life.

Furthermore, life comprises sustenance, mercy, grace, and wisdom, which are dominant in the planning and administration of the universe. It is as if life fastens them on behind it and draws them into the place it enters. For example, when life enters a body, the Name of All-Wise is also manifest; it makes its home well and orders it with wisdom. In the same way, the Name of All-Generous is manifest, and it organizes and decorates its dwelling according to its needs. At the same time, the manifestation of the Name of All-Compassionate is apparent; it bestows all sorts of bounties for the continuance and perfection of life. And again at the same time, the manifestation of the Name of Provider appears; it produces the sustenance, material and immaterial, necessary for the perpetuation and unfolding of the life, and in part stores them up within its body. That is to say, life is like a point of focus; various attributes enter one another, indeed, they become one and the same. It is as if in its entirety life is both knowledge, and at the same time power, and at the same time wisdom and mercy, and so on... Thus, with regard to this comprehensive essence, life is a mirror of the Eternally Besought One reflecting the essential Dominical attributes. It is due to this mystery that the Necessarily Existent One, Who is the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One, creates life in great abundance and plenitude, and scatters it far and wide and broadcasts it, and gathers everything around life and makes it serve it. For life's duty is great. Yes, it is not easy to be the mirror of the Eternally Besought One, it is not some petty duty.

Thus, the sudden and continuous coming into existence from nothing of these countless, numberless lives which we all the time see before our eyes - and of spirits, which are the origins and essences of lives - their being sent, demonstrate the necessary existence, sacred attributes, and Most Beautiful Names of a Necessarily Existent and Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One as clearly as rays show the existence of the sun. Just as someone who does not recognize and accept the existence of the sun is compelled to deny the light which fills the day, so also one who does not recognize the Sun of Divine Oneness, Who is Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent and the Giver of Life and Death, has to deny the existence of the living creatures which fill the earth and even the past and the future; he has to fall a hundred times lower than an animal, to fall from the level of life to become something utterly ignorant and lifeless.


Twenty-Fourth Window

There is no God but He, everything will perish save His countenance, His is the command and to Him shall you return.28

Death is a proof of Dominicality as much as life is a proof of it; it is a most powerful proof of Divine Unity. As the verse,

Who creates death and life29

indicates, death is not non-existence, annihilation, non-being, an authorless extinction, rather, as is shown in the First Letter, it is a being discharged from service by an All-Wise Author, a change of residence, an exchange of bodies, a rest from duty, a being freed from the prison of the body; it is a wise and orderly work of wisdom. Indeed, just as the living face of the earth and the well-fashioned and living creatures upon it testify to the necessary existence and Unity of an All-Wise Maker, so too with their deaths do those living beings bear witness to the Eternity and Unity of an Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One. Since it is proved and elucidated in the Twenty-Second Word that death is an extremely powerful proof of Divine Unity and Eternity, we refer the discussion to that Word and here only explain one important point. It is as follows:

Just as with their existence, living beings point to the existence of a Necessarily Existent One, so too with their deaths do those living beings testify to the eternity and Unity of an Ever-Living Eternal One. For example, the face of the earth, which is a single living creature, points to its Maker with its order and circumstances, and so too does it point to Him when it dies. That is, when winter conceals the earth's face with its white shroud, it turns the gazes of men away from itself - the gaze moves to the past behind the corpse of that departing spring - and it shows it a far wider scene. That is to say, all the past springs of the earth, which were each a miracle of power, make it understood that new living springtime creatures of the earth will come, and since they each testify to the existence of those future wonders of Divine Power, each a living earth, they testify brilliantly and powerfully and on a vast scale to the necessary existence, Unity, everlastingness, and eternity of an All-Glorious Maker, an All-Powerful One of Perfection, an Ever-Living Eternal One; they demonstrate such brilliant proofs that whether one wants to or not they make one declare: "I believe in God, the One, the Unique!"

In Short: According to the meaning of the verse,

And gives life to the earth after its death,30

just as this living earth testifies to the Maker with the spring, so too with its death it turns the gaze to the miracles of Divine Power lined up on the two wings of time, the past and the future; it indicates to thousands of miracles of Power in place of one miracle. And each of those springs testifies more certainly than this present spring. For those which have departed towards the past have gone together with their apparent causes, and after them others like them have come in their places. This means that apparent causes are nothing. Only, an All-Powerful One of Glory creates the springs, and tying them to causes shows that He has sent them. And as for the faces of the earth lined up in future time, they testify more brilliantly. For they will be made anew from nothing, from non-being, and sent; they will be put on the earth, made to do their duty, and then sent away.

And so, O heedless one deviated into Nature and drowning in its swamp! How can something which does not possess hands wise and powerful enough to reach all the past and all the future interfere in the life of the earth? Can your total nonentity of Nature interfere in it? If you want to be saved, say: "At the very most, Nature is a notebook of Divine Power. And as for chance, it is a veil to hidden Divine wisdom which conceals our ignorance." Draw close to the truth!


Twenty-Fifth Window

Like one struck points to the striker, and a finely fashioned work of art necessitates the artist, and an offspring requires a parent, and an under surface demands a top surface, and so on... like all these qualities known as relative matters which are not absolute and cannot exist without each other, contingency too, which is apparent in particulars in the universe as well as in it as a whole, points to necessity. And the state of being acted upon which is to be seen in all of them points to an act, and the createdness apparent in all of them points to creativity, and the multiplicity and composition to be seen in all demand unity. And necessity, an act, creativity, and unity clearly and necessarily require one who is not contingent, acted upon, numerous, compounded, and created, but bears the attributes of being necessary, an agent, one, and a creator. In which case, all contingency, states of being acted upon, createdness, multiplicity and composition testify to the Necessarily Existent One, the One Who acts as He wills, the Creator of All Things, the Single One of Unity.

In Short: Just as necessity is apparent from contingency, the act from the state of being acted upon, and unity from multiplicity, and the existence of the former indicate the latter with certainty, in the same way, qualities like createdness and having all their needs provided for which are to be seen in beings clearly point to the existence of attributes like Making and Providing. And in turn the existence of these attributes point necessarily and self-evidently to the existence of an All-Compassionate Maker Who is a Creator and a Provider. That is to say, each being testifies to the hundreds of the Necessarily Existent One's Most Beautiful Names with the tongues of the hundreds of attributes of this sort which they bear. If this testimony is not admitted, it becomes necessary to deny all the attributes of this sort pertaining to beings...


Twenty-Sixth Window31

The ever-renewed instances of beauty and fairness passing over the faces of the beings in the universe show that they are shadows of a sort of the manifestations of an Eternal Beauteous One. Yes, bubbles sparkling on the surface of a river and then disappearing, and other bubbles coming after them and sparkling like those that preceded them shows that they are mirrors to the rays of a perpetual sun. In the same way, the flashes of beauty which sparkle on the travelling beings in the river of flowing time point to an Eternal Beauteous One and are signs of Him of a sort.

Also, the ardent love in the heart of the universe points to an Undying Beloved. For sure, as is indicated by the fact that something which is not found in the tree itself will not be present in authentic form in its fruit, the ardent love of God present in human kind, the responsive fruit of the tree of the universe, shows that a true love and passion is to be found in all the universe, but in other forms. In which case, this true love and passion in the heart of the universe points to a Pre-Eternal Beloved. Moreover, all the attractions and magnetic forces which appear in numerous forms in the heart of the universe, show to aware hearts that they are thus through the attraction of a drawing truth.

Also, according to the consensus of the saints and those who uncover the mysteries of creation, who are the most sensitive and luminous of creatures, relying on their illuminations and witnessing, they have received the manifestation of a Beauteous One of Glory and through their illuminations have perceived that All-Glorious One of Beauty making Himself known to them and loved by them. Their unanimously telling of this again testifies with certainty to a Necessarily Existent One, to the existence of a Beauteous One of Glory, and to His making Himself known to man.

Also, the pen of beautifying and adorning which works on beings and on the face of the universe points clearly to the beauty of the Names of the pen's Owner. Thus, the beauty on the face of the universe, and the love in its heart, and the attraction in its breast, and the uncovering and witnessing in its eye, and the beauty and adornment on it as a whole, open up a most subtle and luminous window. It displays to aware minds and hearts a Beauteous One of Glory, an Undying Beloved, an Eternal Worshipped One all of Whose Names are beautiful.

And so, O heedless one who flounders amid suffocating doubts in the darkness of matter and obscurity of delusion! Come to your senses! Rise to a state worthy of humanity! Look through these four openings, see the beauty of Unity, gain perfect belief, and become a true man!...


Twenty-Seventh Window

God is the Creator of all things, and of all things He is the Guardian and Disposer.32

We look at things which appear to be causes and effects in the universe and we see that the most elevated cause possesses insufficient power for the most ordinary effect. This means that causes are a veil, and something else makes the effects. To take only a small example out of innumerable creatures let us consider the faculty of memory, which is situated in man's head in a space as tiny as a mustard seed: we see that it is like a book so comprehensive - indeed, like a library - that within it is written without confusion the entire story of a person's life.

What cause can be shown for this miracle of power? The grey matter of the brain? The simple unconscious particles of its cells? The winds of chance and coincidence? But that miracle of art can only be the work of an All-Wise Maker Who, in order to inform man that all the actions he has performed have been recorded and will be recalled at the time of accounting, writes out a small ledger from the great book of man's deeds to be published at the Resurrection, and gives it to the hand of his mind. Thus, as they are comparable to man's faculty of memory, make an analogy with all eggs, seeds, and grains, and then compare other effects to these small and comprehensive miracles. Because whichever effect and work of art you look at, it contains such wonderful art that it is not its common, simple cause, but if all causes were to gather, they would declare their impotence before it.

For example, suppose the sun, which is imagined to be a large cause, to possess will and consciousness; if it is said to it: "Are you able to make a fly?", of course it would reply: "Through my Creator's bounty, there is plenty of light, heat, and colours in my shop, but such things in the fly's being as eyes, ears, and life are neither in my shop, nor are they within my power."

Furthermore, the wonderful art and adornment in effects dismiss causes, and indicating the Necessarily Existent One, the Causer of Causes, in accordance with the verse,

And to Him goes back every affair,33

hand over matters to Him. In the same way, the results, purposes, and benefits attached to effects demonstrate self-evidently that they are the works of an All-Generous Sustainer, an All-Wise and Compassionate One, beyond the veil of causes. For unconscious causes certainly cannot think of some aim and work for it. And yet we see that each creature which comes into existence does so following not one, but many aims, benefits, and instances of wisdom. That means an All-Wise and Generous Sustainer makes those things and sends them. He makes those benefits the aim of their existence.

For example, it is going to rain. It is obvious how distant the causes that apparently result in rain are from thinking of animals and having pity and compassion on them. That means it is sent to their assistance through the wisdom of a Compassionate Creator Who creates the animals and guarantees their sustenance. Rain is even called 'mercy'. Because, since it comprises numerous works of mercy and benefits, it is as if mercy has become embodied as rain, has been formed into drops, and arrives in that way.

Furthermore, all the finely adorned plants which smile at creatures and the embellishments and displays in animals self-evidently point to the necessary existence and Unity of an All-Glorious One behind the veil of the Unseen; One Who wants to make Himself known and loved through these beautifully adorned fine arts. That is to say, this adornment in things and these displays and embellishment indicate of a certainty to the attributes of making known and making loved. While the attributes of making known and making loved self-evidently testify to the necessary existence and Unity of an All-Powerful Maker Who is Loving and Known.

In Short: Since causes are extremely commonplace and impotent and the effects attributed to them are most valuable and full of art, this dismisses causes. And the aims and benefits of effects also discharge ignorant and lifeless causes, and hand them over to an All-Wise Maker. Also, the adornment and skill on the face of effects indicates a Wise Maker Who wants to make His power known to conscious beings and desires to make Himself loved.

Oh wretched worshipper of causes! With what can you explain these important truths? How can you deceive yourself? If you have sense, rend the veil of causes and declare: "He is One, He has no partners!" Be saved from innumerable delusions!


Twenty-Eighth Window

And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the variations in your tongues and in your colours; verily in that are signs for those who know.34

We look at the universe, and we see that a wisdom and ordering embrace everything from the cells of the body to the totality of the world.

We look at the cells of the body, and we see that through the command and according to the law of one who considers what is beneficial for the body and administers it, there is a significant management in those miniscule cells. Just as a sort of sustenance is stored up in the stomach in the form of fat and expended at the time of need, so too in those tiny cells there is a regulation and storing up.

We look at plants, and a most wise planning and nurturing is apparent.

We look at animals, and we see a rearing and nurturing which is generous to the utmost degree.

We look at the mighty elements of the universe, and we see a majestic government and illumination for momentous aims.

We look at the universe as a whole, and we see a perfect ordering for exalted instances of wisdom and elevated aims, as though it was a country, a city, or a palace.

As is described and proved in the First Stopping Place of the Thirty-Second Word, from minute particles to the stars, not the tiniest place is left for associating partners to God. All are in effect so interrelated that one who cannot subjugate all the stars and hold them in his hand, cannot make a particle heed his claims to be its lord and sustainer. It is necessary to own all the stars in order to be the true sustainer of a particle.

Furthermore, as is described and proved in the Second Stopping Place of the Thirty-Second Word, one not capable of creating and arranging the heavens cannot make the individual features on the human face. That is to say, one who is not Sustainer of all the heavens cannot make the distinguishing features on a single human face.

Thus, this is a window as large as the universe, which, if looked through, the following verses will also appear to the mind's eye, written on the pages of the universe in large letters:

God is the Creator of all things, and of all things He is the Guardian and Disposer * His are the keys of the heavens and the earth.35

And so, he who does not see these has either no mind or no heart. Or he is an animal in human form!


Twenty-Ninth Window

And there is not a thing but extols His limitless glory and praise.36

One spring I was setting out on a journey, a stranger, and deep in contemplation. While skirting a hill, a brilliant yellow buttercup struck my eye. It immediately brought to mind the same species of buttercup I had seen long before in my native land and in other countries. This meaning was imparted to my heart: whosesoever this flower is the seal of, the stamp of, the signature of, the impress of, all the flowers of that species throughout the earth are surely His seals, His stamps. After this notion of the seal, the following thought occurred to me: just as a seal stamped on a letter denotes the letter's owner, in the same way, this flower is a seal showing the Most Merciful One. And this hillock which is inscribed with the impresses of these species and written with the lines of these plants so full of meaning, is the letter of this flower's Maker. And this hill too is a seal. This plateau and plain has taken on the form of a letter of the Most Merciful One.

After this thought, the following fact came to mind: like a seal, everything ascribes all things to its own Creator. It proves each is the letter of its own Scribe. Thus, everything forms a window onto Divine Unity that is such that each thing gives all things to a Single One of Unity. That is to say, there is an impress so wonderful, an art so miraculous in each thing, and especially in each living being, that the one who makes it and inscribes it so meaningfully can make all things, and the one who makes all things is certainly Him. That is to say, one who cannot make all things cannot create a single thing.

And so, O heedless one! Look at the face of the universe! See the pages of beings one within the other like letters of the Eternally Besought One, each letter stamped with innumerable seals of Divine Unity! Who can deny the testimony of all these seals? What power can silence them? Whichever of them you listen to with the ear of the heart, you will hear it declaring: "I testify that there is no god but God!"


Thirtieth Window

If there were in the heavens and the earth other gods besides God, there surely would have been confusion in both.37 * Everything will perish save His countenance; His is the command, and to Him shall you return.38

This is the Window of all the scholars of theology, based on contingency and createdness, and their highway for proving the Necessarily Existent One. For all the details, we refer you to the scholars' great books like Sharhu'l-Mavâqif and Sharhu'l-Maqâsid, and here only demonstrate one or two rays which occur to the spirit from the effulgence of the Qur'an and this Window. It is as follows:

It is the requirement of dominion and rulership not to accept rivals; they reject partnership; they repudiate interference. It is because of this that if there are two headmen in one village, they will destroy its tranquillity and order. Or if there are two chief officials in one district, or two governors in one province, they will cause chaos. Or if there are two kings in a country, they will cause complete and stormy confusion. Since a pale shadow and petty example of dominion and rulership in impotent human beings needy for assistance does not accept the interference of rivals, opponents, or peers, then you may compare how fully a rulership which is in the form of absolute sovereignty and a dominion at the degree of Dominicality will carry out that law of the rejection of interference in One Possessing Absolute Power. That is to say, the most definite and constant necessity of Godhead and Dominicality are unity and singleness. The clear proof and certain testimony to this are the perfect order and beautiful harmony in the universe. There is such an order from the wing of a fly to the lamps in the heavens that the intellect prostrates before it in wonder and appreciation, declaring: "Glory be to God! What wonders God has willed! How great are God's blessings!" Had there been an iota of space for partners to God, and had there been interference, as the verse,

If there were in the heavens and the earth other gods besides God, there would have been confusion in both39

indicates, the order would have been destroyed, the form changed, and signs of disorder would have appeared. But as the verses,

So turn your vision again: do you see any flaw? * Then turn your vision a second time; your vision will come back to you in a state dazzled and truly defeated 40

state and point out, however much the human gaze tries to find faults, it can find none anywhere, and returns worn out to its dwelling, the eye, and says to the fault-finding mind who sent it: "I am worn out for nothing; there are no faults." This shows that the order and regularity are most perfect. That is to say, the order in the universe is a definitive witness to Divine Unity.

Come now, let us consider 'createdness'. The scholars of theology stated:

"The world is subject to change. And everything which is subject to change is created. Every created thing has a creator, a maker. In which case, the universe has a pre-eternal creator."

And we say, yes, the universe is created. For we see that every century, rather, every year and every season one universe, one world, goes, and another comes. This means that there is an All-Powerful One of Glory Who, creating the universe anew, creates a universe every year, indeed, every season, and every day, and shows it to the aware and conscious. Then He takes it back and puts another in its place. He attaches one universe behind the other like the links of a chain, and hangs them on the string of time. For sure, the universes which appear from nothing and disappear before our eyes every spring, each a new universe the same as this world, are miracles of the power of the Omnipotent One Who creates them. The One Who continuously creates and changes the worlds within the world most definitely created this world too. And He made this world and the face of the earth a guest-house for those great visitors.

Now let us come to the discussion of 'contingency'. The scholars of theology said:

"Contingency is equal in regard to both existence and non-existence." That is, if existence and non-existence are both equally possible, one who will specify, prefer, and create is necessary. For contingent beings cannot create one another in uninterrupted and never-ending chains of cause and effect. Neither can one create another, and that the next, in the form of causation. In which case there is a Necessarily Existent One Who creates them. They rendered null and void the never-ending causal sequences with the famous twelve categorical proofs called 'the ladder argument', and demonstrated causality to be impossible. They cut the chains of causes and proved the existence of the Necessarily Existent One.

And we say this: it is more certain and easier to demonstrate a stamp peculiar to the Creator of All Things on everything than causes being cut at the extremities of the world with the proofs refuting causality. Through the effulgence of the Qur'an, all the Windows and all the Words are based on this principle. Nevertheless, the point of contingency possesses an infinite breadth. It demonstrates the existence of the Necessarily Existent One in innumerable respects. It is not restricted to the way of the scholars of theology - cutting the chains of causes, which in truth is a mighty and broad highway. It opens rather a path to knowledge of the Necessarily Existent One by ways beyond count. It is as follows:

We see that in its existence, its attributes, and its lifetime, while hesitant among innumerable possibilities, that is, among truly numerous ways and aspects, each thing follows a well-ordered way in regard to its being in innumerable respects. Its attributes also are given it in a particular way. And all the attributes and states which it changes throughout its life are specified in the same fashion. This means it is impelled on a wise way amid innumerable ways through the will of one who specifies, the choice of one who chooses, and the creation of a wise creator. He clothes it with well-ordered attributes and states. Then it is taken out of isolation and made part of a compound body, and the possibilities increase, for they may be found in that body in thousands of ways. Whereas among those fruitless possibilities, it is given a particular, fruitful state, whereby important results and benefits are obtained from that body, and it is made to carry out important functions. Then the body is made a component of another body. Again the possibilities increase, for it could exist in thousands of ways. Thus, it is given one state among those thousands of ways. And through that state it is made to perform important functions; and so on. It progressively demonstrates more certainly the necessary existence of an All-Wise Planner. It makes known that it is being impelled by the command of an All-Knowing Commander. Body within body, each has a function, a well-ordered duty, in all the compounds that one within the other themselves become components of larger compounds, and has a relationship particular to each - in the same way that a soldier has a function and well-ordered duty in his squad, his company, his battalion, his regiment, his division, and his army, and a relationship particular to each of these sections, one within the other. Just as a cell from the pupil of your eye has a duty in your eye and a relationship with it. And has wise functions and duties in your head as a whole and a relationship with it. If it confuses these the tiniest jot, the health and organization of the body will be spoilt. It has particular functions with regard to each of the veins, the sensory and motor nerves, and even the body as a whole, and wise relations with them. That specified state has been given it within thousands of possibilities through the wisdom of an All-Wise Maker.

In just the same way, each of the creatures in the universe testifies to the Necessarily Existent One through the particular being, the wise form, the beneficial attributes given it among numerous possibilities. And so too when they enter compounds, those creatures proclaim their Maker with a different tongue in each compound. Step by step till the greatest compound, through their relations, functions, and duties, they testify to the necessary existence, choice, and will of their All-Wise Maker. Because the one who situates a thing in all the compounds while preserving its wise relations, must be the Creator of all the compounds. That is to say, it is as though one single thing testifies to Him with thousands of tongues. And so, from the point of view of contingency, the testimony to the existence of the Necessarily Existent One is as numerous, not as the number of beings in the universe, but as the attributes of beings and the compounds they form.

And so, O heedless one! One who does not hear this testimony, these voices which fill the universe, must be dead and unreasoning, is that not so? Come on, you say...


Thirty-First Window

We have created man in the best of forms.41 * And in the earth there are signs for those who are certain * And in your own selves; will you not then not see?42

This Window is the Window of man, and it is concerned with man's self. For more elaborate discussions of it in this respect, we refer you to the detailed books of the thousands of learned and scholarly saints, and here only indicate a few principles we have received from the effulgence of the Qur'an. It is like this:

As is explained in the Eleventh Word, "Man is a missive so comprehensive that through man's self, Almighty God makes perceived to him all His Names." For the details we refer you to the other Words, and here only demonstrate three Points.

FIRST POINT

Man is a mirror to the Divine Names in three aspects.

The First Aspect: just as the darkness of the night shows up light, so too through his weakness and impotence, his poverty and need, his defects and faults, man makes known the power, strength, riches, and mercy of an All-Powerful One of Glory, and so on... he acts as a mirror to numerous Divine attributes in this way. Even, through searching for a point of support in his infinite impotence and boundless weakness in the face of his innumerable enemies, his conscience perpetually looks to the Necessarily Existent One. And since he is compelled in his utter poverty and endless need to seek for a point of assistance in the face of his innumerable aims, his conscience in that respect all the time leans on the Court of an All-Compassionate One of Riches and opens its hands in supplication to Him. That is to say, in regard to this point of support and point of assistance in the conscience, two small windows are opened onto the Court of Mercy of the All-Powerful and All-Compassionate One which may all the time be looked through.

The Second Aspect of being mirror-like is this: through particulars like his partial knowledge, power, senses of sight and hearing, ownership and sovereignty, which are sorts of samples given to him, man acts as a mirror to the knowledge, power, sight, hearing, and sovereignty of Dominicality of the Master of the Universe; he understands them and makes them known. For example, he says: "Just as I make this house and know how to make it, and I see it and own it and administer it, so also the mighty palace of the universe has a Maker. That Maker knows it, sees it, makes it, administers it." And so on..

The Third Aspect of being mirror-like: man acts as a mirror to the Divine Names the imprint of which are upon him. There are more than seventy Names the impresses of which are apparent in man's comprehensive nature. These have been described to a degree at the start of the Third Stopping Place of the Thirty-Second Word. For example, from his creation, man shows the Names of Maker and Creator, from his 'Most Excellent of Patterns', the Names of Most Merciful and All-Compassionate, and from the fine way he is nurtured and raised, the Names of All-Generous and Granter of Favours, and so on; he shows the differing impresses of different Names through all his members and faculties, all his organs and substances, all his subtle senses and faculties, all his feelings and emotions. That is to say, just as among the Names there is a Greatest Name, so too among the impresses of those Names there is a greatest impress, and that is man.

O you man who considers himself to be a true man! Read yourself! Otherwise it is possible you will a man who is either animal-like or inanimate!

SECOND POINT

This points to an important mystery of Divine Oneness. It is like this:

The relationship between man's spirit and his body is such that it causes all his members and parts to assist one another. That is, man's spirit is a commanding law from among the laws pertaining to creation - the manifestation of Divine Will - which has been clothed in external existence, and is a subtle Dominical faculty. Thus, in administering the parts of the body, and hearing their immaterial voices, and seeing their needs, they do not form obstacles to one another, nor do they confuse the spirit. Near and far are the same in relation to the spirit. They do not veil one another. If the spirit wishes, it can bring the majority to the assistance of one. If it wishes, it can know, perceive, and administer through each part of the body. Even, if it acquires great luminosity, it may see and hear through all the parts.

In the same way, And God's is highest similitude,43 since the spirit, a commanding law of Almighty God's, displays this ability in the body and members of man, who is the microcosm, for sure, the boundless acts, the innumerable voices, the endless supplications, the uncountable matters in the universe, which is the macrocosm, will present no difficulty to the all-embracing Will and absolute Power of the Necessarily Existent One. They will not form obstacles to one another. They will not occupy that All-Glorious Creator, nor confuse Him. He sees them all simultaneously, and hears all the voices simultaneously. Close and distant are the same for Him. If He wishes, He sends all to the assistance of one. He can see everything and hear their voices through everything. He knows everything through everything, and so on...

THIRD POINT

Life has a most important nature and significant function, but since it has been discussed in detail in the Window on Life [the Twenty-Third Window] and in the Eighth Phrase of the Twentieth Letter, we refer you to those, and here only make the following reminder.

The impresses in life, which, intermingled, boil up in the form of emotions, point to numerous Names and essential Divine qualities. They act as mirrors reflecting the essential qualities of the Ever-Living and Self-Subsistent One in most brilliant fashion. But this is not the time to explain this mystery to those who do not recognize God or do not yet fully affirm Him, and so we here close this door...



Thirty-Second Window

It is He Who has sent His Prophet with Guidance and the Religion of Truth to make it prevail over all religion, and God is sufficient as witness.44 * Say: Oh men! I am sent unto you all as the Prophet of God, to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, there is no God but He; it is He Who gives life and death.45

This is the Window of the Prophet Muhammed (Upon whom be blessings and peace), the Sun of the skies of prophethood, indeed, the Sun of suns. Since it has been proved in the Thirty-First Word, the Treatise on the Ascension, in the Nineteenth Word, the Treatise on the Prophethood of Muhammed (Upon whom be blessings and peace), and in Nineteen Signs of the Nineteenth Letter, how luminous and evident is this most brilliant, most large, and most light-giving window, we shall think of those two Words, and that Letter and its Nineteenth Sign, and refer the word to them. For now we just say this:

Muhammed (Peace and blessings be upon him), the living, articulate proof of Divine Unity, demonstrated and proclaimed Divine Unity throughout his life with the two wings of prophethood and sainthood, that is, with a strength that comprised the consensus of all the prophets who had preceded him and the unanimity of the saints and purified scholars who came after him. And he opened a window onto knowledge of God as broad and brilliant and luminous as the World of Islam. Millions of purified and veracious scholars like Imam Ghazzali, Imam-i Rabbani, Muhyiddin al-Arabi, and Abdulkadir Geylani look through that Window, and show it also to others. Is there a veil that can obscure a Window such as this? And can the person who accusingly does not look through this Window be said to possess reason? Come on, you say!







Thirty-Third Window

Praise be to God, Who has revealed to His servant the Book, and has allowed no crookedness therein.46 * Alif. Lam. Ra. A Book which We have revealed to you, in order that you might lead mankind out of darkness into light.47

Think of all the Windows we have mentioned as being a few drops from the ocean of the Qur'an, then you will be able to compare how many lights of Divine Unity like the water of life there are in the Qur'an. But even if the Qur'an, the source and origin and fountain of all those Windows, is considered in an extremely brief and most simple manner, it still forms a most brilliant, luminous, comprehensive Window. To see how certain and shining and luminous this Window is, we refer you to the Treatise on the Miraculousness of the Qur'an, the Twenty-Fifth Word, and to the Eighteenth Sign of the Nineteenth Letter. And beseeching the Merciful Throne of the All-Glorious One, Who sent us the Qur'an, we say:


Oh our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong!48 * Oh our Sustainer! Let not our hearts deviate now after You have guided us!49 * Oh our Sustainer! Accept this from us; indeed You are the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing!50 * And turn unto us; for You are the Oft-Returning, Most Compassionate.51

* * *
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Note

God willing, this Thirty-Third Letter of Thirty-Three Windows will bring to belief those without belief, strengthen the belief of those whose belief is weak, make certain the belief of those whose belief is strong but imitative, give greater breadth to the belief of those whose belief is certain, lead to progress in knowledge of God - the basis and means of all true perfection - for those whose belief has breadth, and open up more brilliant vistas for them. You cannot say, therefore, that "One window is enough for me." Because if your reason is satisfied, your heart wants its share as well, and so also does your spirit want its share. The imagination too will want its share of that light. As a consequence, the other Windows are also necessary, for each contains different benefits.

In the Treatise on the Ascension of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), it was primarily the believer who was being addressed, while the atheist was in the position of listener. But in this treatise, it is the denier who is addressed, while it is the believer in the position of listener. This must be taken into consideration when looking at it.

Unfortunately, due to an important reason, this letter was written with extreme speed and has also remained in the state of the first draft. There will certainly therefore be some irregularities and defects in the way it is expressed, which are due to me. I request of my brothers then that they look at it with tolerance, and correct it if they are able, and pray for my forgiveness.


Peace be on those who follow Guidance, and may those who follow their own desires be censured.
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Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.52

Oh God, grant blessings and peace to the one whom You sent as a Mercy to All the Worlds, and to his Family and Companions, and grant them peace. Amen.